TADEJ POGACAR WON stage four of the Tour de France to reclaim the yellow jersey as he put more than half a minute into defending champion Jonas Vingegaard and his other chief rivals.
Pogacar attacked from a select group inside the final kilometre of the mighty Galibier climb before racing clear down the twisty descent to the finish in Valloire as the race crossed into France after three days on Italian soil.
Richard Carapaz cracked still with six kilometres of the Galibier climb to go to lose his grip on yellow after only one day, finishing some five minutes back.
🙌 INSANE descent from Tadej
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 2, 2024
🙌 Quelle descente de Tadej #TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/L7Eu9dsZv8
The Ecuadorian was among a string of high-profile victims of a blistering pace on the climb set by Pogacar’s UAE Emirates team-mates, who whittled the pack down to just a handful of contenders before Pogacar, who bided his time to attack wary of a powerful headwind, made his move.
Vingegaard was quick to respond, but a gap of few bike lengths had opened up by the time Pogacar claimed the bulk of the bonus seconds on offer at the summit, with Remco Evenepoel third at the top before Carlos Rodriguez and Primoz Roglic.
That trio would catch Vingegaard on a descent that included several corners left wet by snow melt, but Pogacar was stretching his lead in front as he came home to claim his 12th career Tour stage win.
Ben Healy finished 31st, 5:10 behind Pogacar, while Sam Bennett came home safely in a group more than half an hour adrift.
Pogacar now leads overall by 45 seconds from Evenepoel, with Vingegaard third, 50 seconds down. Roglic sits fifth with a 74-second deficit, two seconds ahead of Rodriguez in sixth.
The finale to the 140km stage from Pinerolo, which packed in more than 3,600 metres of climbing, brought back memories of Tom Pidcock’s stunning descending down the Galibier on his way to winning on the Alpe d’Huez in 2022.
But any hopes of a repeat for the Olympic mountain bike champion were dashed as he was dropped as the gradients ramped up in the final seven kilometres of this Alpine beast, which tops out above 2,600 metres.
