Tour de France stage 4: Tadej Pogačar outduels Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Vingegaard on hotly-contested sprint finish in Rouen

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) sprinted to the 100th victory of his career on stage 4 of the Tour de France, outpacing race leader Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) to the line at the end of the uphill drag into Rouen.

Following a similar showdown on stage 2 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, the pair went head-to-head once again on the 5% slope to the line, with Van der Poel launching the sprint before the World Champion came around the outside to nip through and take the win with a sharp finishing acceleration.

Further back, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) rounded out the podium to shed six bonus seconds to his great GC rival. The Dane now lies eight seconds off Pogačar, who is level on time with Van der Poel as the Dutchman remains in yellow on countback.

“I think today everybody was on the limit. I tried with an attack on the last climb and then Jonas [Vingegaard] followed me and then everything came together,” Pogačar said after the stage.

“João [Almeida] did such an amazing job to lead me out until the very end, even if people were attacking. I’m super happy and proud of the team today, amazing. I’m just without words. It’s such a nice victory.

“To win at the Tour is incredible, in this jersey even more, and to have 100 victories is amazing," Pogačar continued.

“With so many good riders in the final, you’re always a bit on the edge and nervous about what’s going to happen. You never know until the final, like today. You get this adrenaline. It’s pure racing and I enjoy it.

“We’ll see tomorrow,” he replied when asked about going for yellow during Wednesday’s 33km time trial. “It’s the real test. Even already to win a stage in this jersey is enough for me. I’ll just go and enjoy this race. Of course, we’ll aim for the yellow, but we’ll see.”

The battle for the GC ignited over the hills leading into Rouen, with five classified climbs coming in the final 60km of the 174.2km day. It was on the final of the quintet, the steep slopes of the Rampe Saint-Hilaire (800m at 10.6%), which saw the big names launch.

On the way up, a lead-out train from Visma-Lease A Bike turned into a João Almeida lead-out for Pogačar, with the Slovenian making his move at 5.5km to go. Only Vingegaard could follow, though even he had to battle to stay in touch over the top.

A chase group including Van der Poel, Almeida, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL), and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) came across before the final ramp, thanks to the Belgian’s efforts on the front, setting up a grandstand finish.

Almeida was back up front on the run to the line, chasing down a short-lived Jorgenson move, while it was Van der Poel who launched the sprint from his wheel. For a moment, it looked as though he’d claim a third stage win in four days for Alpecin-Deceuninck, but he didn’t quite have enough to hold off Pogačar this time, instead being forced to settle for second place.

Van der Poel continues in the race lead ahead of the stage 5 time trial in Caen, level on time with Pogačar, who is back in the polka dot jersey after leading the way over the day's final climb.

Vingegaard lies third, eight seconds behind the duo, while Evenepoel shed three seconds at the finish and now lies ninth overall at 58 seconds. Primoź Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), was nowhere at the finish, finishing 32 seconds down in 18^th place. He's down in 12^th overall, 1:27 off the race lead.

How it unfolded

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Stage 4 of the Tour de France saw the race heading south for the first time after the Grand Départ in the far north of the country, with a hilly 174.2km taking the riders from Amiens down to Rouen, two hours north-west of Paris.

The day featured 1,700 metres of climbing, though much of it was packed into the closing 60km, with each of the categorised climbs coming late on. The fourth-category Côte Jacques Anquetil (3.5km at 3.6%) at 46km from the line was followed by the third-category Côte de Belbeuf (1.3km at 9.1%), a pair more of fourth-category hills in the Côte de Bonsecours (900m at 7.2%) and the Côte de la Grand’Mare (1.8km at 5%).

The final major challenge of the stage would come with the Rampe Saint-Hilaire (800m at 10.6%), peaking at 5.2km from the finish, which came at the end of a 500-metre, 5% ramp.

Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) attacked as soon as the flag dropped to begin the stage, with Thomas Gachignard (TotalEnergies) coming across to make it a three-man move after 6km.

The peloton was more than happy for the trio to ride off up the road, though Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost) was keen to get out of the group and make it a breakaway quartet. The Dane made a move 8km into the stage, eventually working his way across the two-minute gap after 17km of racing.

The peloton, led by Alpecin-Deceuninck, held the group at two minutes during the quiet middle period of the stage, with the Belgian team hoping to launch Van der Poel to a second stage win in Rouen.

Up front, three of the four breakaway men would be hoping against hope that they could strike out for their first career Tour stage win.

Asgreen already had a Tour stage on his palmarès after triumphing from the break in Bourg-en-Bresse two years ago, while Abrahamsen memorably made six breaks, wore two jerseys, and took two combativity prizes at last year’s race.

As was the case on stage 3, very little happened during the day, even if this time there was actually a breakaway on the stage. Once again, the crashes came, with Yevgeniy Fedorov (XDS-Astana), Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies), and Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) caught up in a spill with just over 50km to go.

A few kilometres later, Cees Bol (XDS-Astana) and Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-QuickStep) went down, too, though there were no disastrous DNFs as was the case with Jasper Philipsen on Monday.

By the time the break hit the Côte Jacques Anquetil, their advantage had melted away to 1:15. Asgreen took the chance to pick up a point and get his name on the mountain classification leaderboard ahead of Martinez.

The tension in the bunch racheted up as the stage final neared, but riders managed to avoid further crashes on the road to the intermediate sprint. There was bad luck, however, for Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling), who lost a minute waiting for a bike change.

Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) extended his green jersey at the sprint with 31km to go, grabbing 11 points ahead of the 10 of Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), and the nine of Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep).

GC battles in the hilly final

Gachignard was caught just before the Côte de Belbeuf, 29km from the line, while up front Martinez pushed on alone on the steep slopes of the hill, leaving Abrahamsen and Asgreen to be caught by the peloton. The Frenchman took two KOM points at the top, while polka dot jersey Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) nipped out another point of his own to consolidate his classification lead.

The race from the Belbeuf to the Côte de Bonsecours was marked by a crash which took out multiple riders, including Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana) and Mick van Dijke (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-QuickStep) looked to have come off the worst, though, with the Frenchman sat crying by the roadside after hitting the deck.

The race stopped for nobody, however, and UAE Team Emirates-XRG continued to push the pace at the front into the final 20km. The polka-dotted Wellens ploughed on up the Côte de la Grand’Mare, leading the way at the top and for another point.

Visma-Lease a Bike, with Victor Campenaerts leading, took over at the front heading into the closing 10km. The Belgian time trialist pulled off midway up the steep climb with 6.1km to go, launching Benoot before Jhonatan Narváez quickly seized the initiative for UAE Team Emirates-XRG.

João Almeida was the next UAE man up, leading Pogačar before the Slovenian launched with 5.5km to go. Behind him, the yellow jersey Van der Poel had no response, though, to be fair, neither did anyone else, bar Vingegaard, who latched onto Pogačar’s wheel.

He managed to cling on – just about – to the World Champion over the top, but the struggle to match his rival’s pace was the first real sign of their respective levels this July. Behind them, Van der Poel’s group lay 15 seconds down, with Evenepoel leading the chase.

That gap had evaporated by the 4km mark, with Vingegaard seemingly unable to work with Pogačar while Evenepoel gave his all to get across. He did just that, taking Van der Poel, Almeida, Jorgenson and Onley with him to make it a seven-man lead group.

Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Kévin Vauqeulin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), and Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) battled to get across before the final kilometre, while the fourth member of the supposed ‘big four’, Roglič, languished 20 seconds down.

Jorgenson launched a move heading into the final kilometre, but the American was shut down by Almeida before the Portuguese rider led up the final 5% ramp. Van der Poel was in prime position in the wheel as Pogačar, Vingegaard, Onley and Grégoire lined up behind.

It was Van der Poel who launched the sprint, jumping into the wind with just over 150 metres to go. He got the jump on the rest, with only Pogačar managing to stay in touch during the closing sprint.

There wouldn’t be a second stage win for the Classics superstar, however, as he ran out of gas before the finish, leaving Pogačar to launch out of his slipstream and come through to take win number 100.

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