Tour de France Stage Report: On the first proper mountain stage the top men showed what they had. On the final climb, the UAE Team Emirates set the race on fire. Then Tadej Pogačar made his move before the summit. At the top he had 10 seconds on Jonas Vingegaard and 15 on Remco Evenepoel, Primoz Roglič was just behind. The yellow jersey of Richard Carapaz was over 3 minutes down. At the finish in Valloire, after the long descent, the Slovenian had 35 seconds on a chase group including Vingegaard, Roglič, Evenepoel, Ayuso and Rodriguez. Stage, yellow and a buffer of 45 seconds and more on all the other favourites.
*** Full ‘Tour Stage Report’ very soon. ***
The final kilometre
Tadej Pogačar is the big winner of the first mountain stage of the 2024 Tour de France. In the difficult Alpine stage to Valloire, he rode away from his competitors, including Jonas Vingegaard, in the final kilometre of the Col du Galibier, after which he extended his lead on the fast descent.
The first Tour stage win of 2024 for Tadej Pogačar
Christian Prudhomme, Tour de France general director: “The race leaves Italy after a long climb to the resort of Sestrières, where Coppi triumphed in 1952, the border subsequently reached at the Col de Montgenèvre. Then, after ascending the Lautaret pass, the riders will tackle the 2,642-metre Galibier. This will be the first opportunity for the favourites to test themselves in the high mountains.”
Stage 4 profile
The Tour de France returns to its home land on day four. The stage from Pinerolo to Valloire is only 138 kilometres, but there is very little flat. The Alps need to be crossed to reach France. The giant climb of the Col du Galibier, summits 19 kilometres from the finish. Before the peloton crosses into France, Italy has two climbs to conquer. From the start to rad climbs to Sestrieres. The last 7 kilometres rise at 7.2%, but the complete length of the climb is 39.9 kilometres at 3.7%. This is followed by the Col de Montgenèvre (8.3km at 5.9%). A short descent brings the riders to the Col du Galibier (23km at 5.1%). This Alpine giant is where climbing legends are made. From the top there are 19 downhill kilometres to Valloire and the finish line.
Stage 3 winner Biniam Girmay – A man who makes history
With Richard Carapaz in the yellow jersey, the peloton started the first real mountain stage in this year’s Tour. Unlike yesterday, there was a lot of enthusiasm to be in the early break. Victor Campenaerts was the first attacker of the day and another Belgian, Wout van Aert, also showed himself at the front of the race. These attempts failed. A subsequent attack by Mads Pedersen had more success. The Dane wanted the intermediate sprint in Castel del Boco (20km) and held off the peloton. The former World champion was soon joined by five other riders: Kevin Niets, Magnus Cort, Frank van den Broek, Harold Tejada and Wout Poels. A nice breakaway group, but in the peloton Alpecin-Deceuninck started to chase.
Tadej Pogačar seems popular
The Belgian team had missed the move and tried to bring Jasper Philipsen back to Pedersen before the intermediate sprint. It was up to Silvan Dillier and then World champion Mathieu van der Poel to work. Intermarché-Wanty also decided to help for Biniam Girmay, so it all came together in time. Pedersen still won the intermediate sprint, ahead of Girmay, Bryan Coquard and Philipsen.
Not Fausto Coppi at the start
The riders had now started the first climb of the day, to Sestrieres, this was the time for the climbers to move up. There were a lot of attacks, while at the back of the peloton, many were in trouble. It was too fast for most of the sprinters. GC men, Egan Bernal and Primoz Roglič were also said to have some problems, but were able to return.
Jonas Vingegaard signing on for another hot day
Halfway up the climb to Sestrieres, a leading group of 17 riders finally got together. Mathieu van der Poel, the World champion was there, along with climbers such as Tobias Halland Johannessen, David Gaudu, Stephen Williams, Warren Barguil and Valentin Madouas. They took a 1 minute lead on the now thinned peloton. EF Education-EasyPost, the team of overall leader Carapaz, was setting a strong pace.
Mark Cavendish is also popular
The big break included: Romain Grégoire & David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Odd Christian Eiking & Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan), Cristián Rodríguez & Raul García Pierna (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Oier Lazkano (Movistar), Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies), Kobe Goossens (Intermarché-Wanty), Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech), Warren Barguil (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) and Chris Juul-Jensen (Jayco AlUla).
World champion, Mathieu van der Poel hasn’t had much luck yet in this Tour
The EF team received help from UAE Team Emirates, who obviously had plans for Pogačar. Classics man, Nils Politt was put to work for the Slovenian. As a result, the difference to the Van der Poel group fluctuated around 3 minutes. The 17 escapees didn’t get much more of an advantage due to Barguil and Eiking in the leading group. They were the best placed riders, 2:31 behind Carapaz.
Yellow jersey, Richard Carapaz and best Young rider, Remco Evenepoel ready for a tough day
The front riders were at the top of Sestriere and sprinted for the KOM points. Stephen Williams, the winner of the Flèche Wallonne, took 5 mountain points. On this next climb, the Col de Montgenèvre, it was the same. Williams won the sprint and was able to add another 5 points to his collection. The leading group then rode at a good pace to the foot of the Col du Galibier. The lead over the peloton had now shrunk to 2 minutes, after serious acceleration from UAE Team Emirates, who seemed intent on taking over power. The break had started the Galibier. In the first kilometres the road isn’t steep, so there was no early action.
The course climbed from the start
In the peloton it was now all hands on deck, as UAE Team Emirates were piling on the pressure. Politt and Tim Wellens were pulling the leaders back. The front riders knew the chase was coming and so they started to attack. Lazkano, Gaudu, Johannessen, Juul-Jensen and Burgaudeau got away, as Van der Poel decided to sit up.
Would this be the break of the day?
In the favourites group, Wellens was replaced by Marc Soler after a final strong pull. Soler managed to thin out the group even further. Lazkano dropped his four remaining escape companions. The Movistar rider threw everything into his ride, but he was just going to be hunted down. Seven kilometres from the top, Lazkano was caught, and it was time for the GC men to go into action.
The race soon split
The World champ was there
Despite the climb not being too steep and the headwind, some top riders were in trouble. The first was Simon Yates. Last year’s final 4th overall had a bad day and would lose a lot of time. Next it was Tom Pidcock who had to let go with 6 kilometres to go, the yellow jersey of Carapaz was soon gone too. Due to the work of Almeida, Juan Ayuso and Adam Yates, the favourite group was reduced to 15 riders.
The Tour goes to France
Roglič, Evenepoel, Mikel Landa, Egan Bernal, Carlos Rodríguez, Felix Gall, Giulio Ciccone, Pogacar and Vingegaard managed that first selection. However, Pogacar’s men were not done yet, a new acceleration from Almeida cost Ciccone, Gall and Bernal their places. There were now 8 men left at the front, although Roglič looked like he was in trouble, the Slovenian got through this tough point.
Could the break hold out? No
UAE Team Emirates tore the race apart
Pogačar’s expected attack had yet to come, but the Slovenian held back for a long time and left the work to his teammates Ayuso and Almeida. Then in the last kilometre, he put in a scorching attack, Pogačar flew away from everyone, including Vingegaard. The Dane initially held Pogačar’s wheel, but there was a gap. Pogačar pulled away from Vingegaard metre by metre and was the first over the top of the Alpine giant with a lead of 10 seconds. Pogačar took 8 bonus seconds at the top of the Galibier. The Slovenian then put his head down to extend his lead over Vingegaard in the fast descent to Valloire. The dane didn’t give up and held Pogačar at those 10 seconds for a long time.
The attack was bound to come from Pogačar
It was the Slovenian who had wings
In the first downhill kilometres, Vingegaard looked to be getting closer, but he just couldn’t close that last gap. Pogačar was taking all the chances he could and managed to extend his lead as the descent went on. Vingegaard had eased up and was joined by Roglič, Rodríguez, Ayuso and (eventually) Evenepoel, but Pogačar was well gone and he soloed to the stage victory in Valloire and the yellow jersey.
Vingegaard held Pogačar at 10 seconds for a long time, but the Slovenian extended his lead by the finish
A stunning attack and a perfect descent to the finish
The Slovenian had to wait more than half a minute for the pursuers to cross the finish line. Evenepoel won the sprint for second place, 35 seconds behind winner Pogačar. Ayuso, Roglič, Vingegaard and Rodríguez crossed the finish line in third, fourth, fifth and sixth places in the same time as Evenepoel.
Stage and yellow was the UAE plan and it worked
Remco Evenepoel brought in the other GC favourites
Stage winner and overall leader, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): “I’m super happy. This was more or less the plan, and we executed it pretty well. It was like a dream stage, and finishing it off solo was very special. I wanted to hit hard today, as I was confident I could win and put some seconds on my rivals. I know this stage pretty well. I’ve trained a lot here and it felt like a home stage, passing through Sestriere and Montgenevre. There was a lot of headwind in the Galibier climb, so the pace didn’t feel that hard when following wheels. Still, my team did a super good job. I didn’t want to attack too early because of the wind, so I saved my legs until that attack with 800 meters to go on which I pushed as hard as possible in order to make such big differences as possible. I knew the downhill, and that helped a lot, but it was a bit scary and surprising to see that the first few corners were wet. The gaps I created are good news for me. I can be happy with the position and the shape I am in right now. Yet there are three demanding weeks ahead of us, and as for this week in particular there is an ITT that can create some gaps.”
Tadel Pogačar back in yellow
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Tour de France Stage 4 Result:
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates in 3:46:38
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step at 0:35
3. Juan Ayuso Pesquera (Spa) UAE Team Emirates
4. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe
5. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma | Lease a Bike at 0:37
6. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spa) INEOS Grenadiers
7. Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Soudal Quick-Step at 0:53
8. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates
9. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek at 2:41
10. Santiago Buitrago Sanchez (Col) Bahrain Victorious.
Tour de France Overall After Stage 4:
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates in 19:06:38
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step at 0:45
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma | Lease a Bike at 0:50
4. Juan Ayuso (Spa) UAE Emirates at 1:10
5. Primoz Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 1:14
6. Carlos Rodríguez (Spa9) INEOS Grenadiers at 1:16
7. Mikel Landa (Spa) Soudal Quick-Step at 1:32
8. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates at 1:32
9. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek at 3:20
10. Egan Bernal (Col) INEOS Grenadiers at 3:21.
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