Pogacar sprints to 100th pro win and Stage 4 glory at Tour de France

Tadej Pogacar claimed his 100th career win and 17th Tour de France stage victory by outsprinting yellow jersey holder Mathieu van der Poel in Stage 4. Pogacar also reclaimed the polka dot jersey after a fierce battle through Normandy’s hilly terrain.

Hyderabad: Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) brought up his century of professional wins in style by outsprinting yellow jersey Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in a nail-biting finale to Stage 4 of the Tour de France in Rouen (France). After an expert lead-out by his Portuguese team-mate Joao Almeida on the final ramp to the line, Pogacar put on the burners on the home straight to surge past Dutchman Van der Poel and take a sumptuous seventeenth Tour stage win of his career.

By digging deep to finish second ahead of Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), Van der Poel did enough to retain the yellow jersey by the narrowest of margins ahead of Wednesday’s all-important individual time trial in Caen, for which Vingegaard will be among the favourites.

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Double champion Vingegaard was the only rider capable of matching Pogacar on the final categorised climb of the day, the super-steep Rampe Saint-Hilaire – the fifth of a series of short but spicy ascents to pepper the final hour of racing in the undulating 175km schlep through Normandy.

The two riders sat up and were caught by a select chase group inside the final four kilometres before both Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) tried their luck ahead of the final rise to the line.

But Pogacar kept his cool and timed his sprint to perfection – emerging from the back wheel of the tiring Van der Poel on the home straight to stamp his authority on the 112th edition of the Tour, and take back the polka dot jersey in the process.

With Van der Poel and Pogacar tied for time at the top of the general classification, Vingegaard retained his third place at eight seconds with team-mate Jorgenson up to fourth at 19 seconds ahead of France’s Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels), the white jersey.

Belgium’s Evenepoel conceded three seconds thanks to a late split but rose to ninth place in the standings, at 58 seconds. There was more woe, however, for Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) after he was tailed off on the final climb. Roglic finished the stage 32 seconds back and is now 1’27″ down on his compatriot, the three-time champion Pogacar.

An early three-man move featured French duo Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) and Thomas Gachignard (Team TotalEnergies), and Norway’s Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility). Just as the peloton looked to sit back and accept the status quo, Denmark’s Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost) darted clear in pursuit.

Asgreen’s presence off the front changed the dynamic of the race and soon the Alpecin-Deceuninck team of the yellow jersey came to the front to ensure there would be no repeat of Asgreen’s breakaway win from May’s Giro d’Italia.

Once the Dane caught the leaders, the four escapees carved out a maximum lead of just over two minutes ahead of the day’s major tests – five categorised climbs crammed into the final 50km of racing.

A flurry of crashes in the peloton ahead of those climbs reflected not only the nervous nature of the riders but the technical challenges of roads littered with traffic calming measures, pinch points and numerous twists and turns.

After Asgreen took the solitary point over the Cote Jacques Anquetil – named after the five-time champion whose chateau stands atop the climb – Abrahamsen took the spoils in the intermediate sprint, by which point the breakaway had the peloton breathing down its neck.

Italy’s Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) took the maximum remaining points in the sprint to extend his lead in the green jersey standings before dropping like a stone on the succession of climbs on the road to Rouen.