Tadej Pogacar beats Mathieu van der Poel to win Tour de France's Stage 4 in 100th career victory
– Reigning champion Tadej Pogacar overtook race leader Mathieu van der Poel just before the line to win Stage 4 of the Tour de France on July 8, and is now level at the top of the general classification after earning his 100th career victory.
The 174.2km ride from Amiens to Rouen came down to a sprint finish between the top three in the overall standings, with the Slovenian world champion getting the better of van der Poel, and Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard coming in third.
Pogacar, chasing his fourth Tour overall title, said: 'I think today I hope everyone was on the limit.
'I'm super happy and proud of the team today. To win at the Tour is incredible, in this jersey even more, and to have a hundred victories is amazing.
'With so many good riders in such a final, you're always a bit on the edge and nervous about what will happen.
'In the end, you have this adrenaline with this pure racing and I enjoy it. We will see tomorrow (with the time trial), which is the real test.'
A breakaway group of four riders – Lenny Martinez, Jonas Abrahamsen, Thomas Gachignard and Kasper Asgreen – got away early but the peloton, led by van der Poel's Alpecin-Deceuninck team, kept them well within reach.
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The action was always going to come in the closing 50km, with five categorised climbs packed into the finale, and Martinez was the last to be caught with 20km remaining, shortly after a crash had brought down several riders in the bunch.
Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates took control at the front coming to the penultimate climb, before Vingegaard's Visma-Lease a Bike team took over, pushing hard on the descent as anticipation grew for a late attack.
When it came on the final climb, it was the expected break from Pogacar, but he was unable to shake off two-time champion Vingegaard, and the pair were joined by five other riders, including van der Poel, to set up a high-stakes finish.
Van der Poel went first, looking for his second stage win in three days, but Pogacar had the legs to overtake before the line, and made up the four seconds which separated the pair overall thanks to the stage win bonus.
Stage 5 will shake up the overall standings with a 33km individual time trial around Caen. The stage is being billed as the day Remco Evenepoel will finally slip into the overall leader's yellow jersey.
To do so, the 25-year-old Belgian world and Olympic champion in the discipline will need to cover the 33km course almost a minute faster that Pogacar and Vingegaard. REUTERS, AFP
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