Tadej Pogacar claims milestone stage four win to move level with Mathieu van der Poel in Tour de France yellow jersey battle
In the hometown of the Tour's first five-time winner Jacques Anquetil, Pogacar took a stride to what he hopes will be his fourth title with a show of strength on another classics-style stage, beating Van der Poel and his great rival Jonas Vingegaard in an uphill sprint.
It was Pogacar's 18th career Tour stage win and one that put him on the same time as Van der Poel - who retains yellow on countback - with Vingegaard eight seconds back going into Wednesday's time trial. Pogacar, 26, became the fourth youngest rider to reach 100 professional wins.
Ireland's Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla), who is riding in his Tour debut, crossed the line 1:49 down in 42nd, with Ben Healy (EF Education - EasyPost) four seconds further back.
Healy is 35th overall in the general classification and ninth in the youth classification, while Cork native Dunbar is 55th in the GC.
Lenny Martinez, the last survivor of a four-man breakaway, was collected with around 20km left as Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad and Vingegaard's Visma-Lease A Bike team came to the fore, quickly making a major selection in the peloton as few could keep with the pace.
Pogacar tried to attack on the steepest section of the last categorised climb, where gradients hit 15% on the Rampe Saint-Hilaire, briefly distancing Vingegaard, who was the only man who could follow before getting back onto his rival's wheel by the summit.
Remco Evenepoel dragged a handful of riders back across to the leading pair on the descent into Rouen, Van der Poel among them, but there would be no beating the world champion to victory.
"I think today I got very, very close to the limit," Pogacar said. "I tried with an attack on the last climb and then Jonas followed me and everything came together.
"Joao (Almeida) did such an amazing job to lead me out until the very end, even if people were attacking so I'm super happy and proud of the team today, it's amazing and I'm just without words, it's such a nice victory.
"To win at the Tour is incredible, to do it in this jersey even more so and to win 100 victories is amazing...We will see, tomorrow is the real test. Already to win a stage in this jersey for me it's enough, I just go on enjoying this race. Of course we aim for yellow and we will see."
Evenepoel conceded another three seconds to Pogacar and Vingegaard, leaving him 58 seconds off yellow, while Primoz Roglic lost 32 seconds to fall one minute 27 seconds down.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Independent
18 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Lara Gillespie finishes best of Irish at Tour de France Femmes
Lara Gillespie crossed the line 25 minutes behind Ferrand-Prevot yesterday to finish her Tour in 82nd in general classification. The Wicklow woman was best of a trio, who were the first Irish riders to compete in this iteration of France's Grand Tour. In the overall rankings, Mia Griffin finished 97th while Fiona Mangan took 118th. Ferrand-Prevot of team Visma-Lease a Bike held steady through the 124.1km ride from Praz-sur-Arly to Chatel, before launching a decisive attack in the last seven kilometres, and fell to the ground in tears after crossing the finish line. Vollering (FDJ-Suez) stayed in a group with Ferrand-Prevot for the majority of the ninth stage, but could not break away to make up her deficit of more than three minutes coming into the last day. The Dutch rider finished second in the race for the second year in a row, losing out on the yellow jersey by three minutes and 42 seconds. Defending champion Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM) finished third overall. 'I'm so, so happy,' Ferrand-Prevot said. 'I was a bit scared with the pressure of this jersey... I had to stick to the front and just stay there.'
RTÉ News
19 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Pauline Ferrand-Prevot prevails to win Tour de France Femmes
Olympic champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot became the first Frenchwoman to win the Tour de France Femmes on Sunday, pushing through three punishing climbs to clinch the final stage ahead of 2023 champion Demi Vollering, who finished second overall. The 33-year-old of team Visma–Lease a Bike held steady through the 124.1km ride from Praz-sur-Arly to Chatel, before launching a decisive attack in the last seven kilometres, and fell to the ground in tears after crossing the finish line. "I'm so, so happy," Ferrand-Prevot told reporters. "I was a bit scared with the pressure of this jersey... I had to stick to the front and just stay there." Vollering (FDJ–Suez) stayed in a group with Ferrand-Prevot for the majority of the ninth stage, but could not break away to make up her deficit of more than three minutes coming into the last day. The Dutch rider finished second in the race for the second year in a row, losing out on the yellow jersey by three minutes and 42 seconds. Defending champion Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon–SRAM) finished third overall. Ferrand-Prevot, who won gold in women's cross-country mountain biking at last year's Paris Games, had taken the yellow jersey from Kimberley Le Court on Saturday. Australia's Sophia Gigante, who was second overall coming into the final stage, tried to get ahead of Ferrand-Prevot during the climb to Col de Joux Plane, known as one of cycling's toughest summits in the Alps, but the Frenchwoman stayed on her wheels. Gigante fell behind as Ferrand-Prevot caught up with Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), who had taken an early lead, on the way to Col du Corbier, the final major climb of the 1,168.6km race. The exhausted leading group was unable to keep up when Ferrand-Prevot launched her final attack and crossed the finish line 20 seconds before Vollering to huge applause from the crowd in Chatel. Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx–Protime), who has led the points classification since stage three, cemented her position to deny Dutch compatriot Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) a third green jersey. It was a historic Tour from an Irish perspective. Fiona Mangan (Winspace Orange Seal) became the first Irish rider to win an intermediate sprint at the event on Friday. She finished 118th in the general classification. Last Tuesday Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) produced a superb ride to finish third on stage four. Gillespie was 82nd overall. Mia Griffin was 97th in the GC for Roland Le Dévoluy. All three Irish riders were makign their first appearances on the Tour.
Irish Times
a day ago
- Irish Times
Andy Farrell in ‘very strong position' to be Lions coach in 2029
Although it is a decision that can wait another couple of years, the British & Irish Lions CEO Ben Calveley has scarcely concealed the prevailing view that Andy Farrell is the favourite to assume the role of head coach for the tour to New Zealand in four years' time. The Lions favour continuity – witness how they rehired Ian McGeechan and Warren Gatland on previous tours – and after working as an assistant to the latter for the winning series in Australia in 2013 and the drawn series in New Zealand 2017, Farrell has now backed that up with another 2-1 triumph against the Wallabies. Although Saturday's rain-affected 22-12 defeat by the Wallabies took some of the gloss off the Lions' achievement, and left them short of the declared objective to complete a series whitewash, Farrell's reputation has clearly been enhanced in the eyes of the Lions hierarchy. 'Since he has started full-time back in December, he has brought a real focus to the operation which has ultimately resulted in success on the field of play,' said Calveley of the Irish head coach. READ MORE 'He has done a great job and I have really enjoyed working with him. I think we will now give him a bit of time off. He can go back to Dublin and decompress a little bit and then he can start building for the autumn internationals in Ireland and building towards the World Cup in 2027. 'We wish him all the success with that. When it comes to our appointments for future tours, you mentioned 2029, we will start the process in about two years and I don't think it would be right to comment on where it ends up, let's see. But, certainly you're right, he has put himself in a very strong position hasn't he, let's put it that way.' Farrell himself had been predictably coy when asked in the aftermath of Saturday's defeat whether he'd be interested in assuming the role again in two years' time. 'Again, everyone knows what I think about this concept and I suppose that says it all. I love everything that the Lions is about and I've thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed the last eight weeks. 'There's always ups and there's always downs but the inner circle is a special place to be.' In other words, yes? 'Well, read into that what you want but I suppose four years, there's a long time between drinks isn't there?' Joe Schmidt, head coach of the Wallabies looks on after the team's victory. Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Early in the tour, and up to the epic second Test when Farrell's team sealed an unassailable 2-0 lead with the biggest comeback in Lions' Test history when Hugo Keenan's 80th-minute try earned a 29-26 victory , there had been some who were in a rush to judge and condemn this tour and these Wallabies. There were even suggestions that the Lions should never tour here again, but not only did Calveley confirm that this had never been countenanced, he confirmed that this had been the most lucrative Lions tour to date, without divulging figures, and strongly indicated that they will be back in 12 years' time. 'I would absolutely envisage returning to Australia. Just to be very clear, I know there's been loads of speculation about whether that would be the case or not, but we've had a wonderful tour here, and it is a 100 per cent our ambition to return, and we would want the next one to be bigger and better than this one. 'Who knows what the calendar looks like in the future, but if nothing changes in terms of calendar configurations and so forth, then that would be the expectation, yes.' Although this third Test win was something of another tactical coup by Joe Schmidt, and further evidence of their progress under him, the former Leinster and Ireland coach reiterated his intension to step down after next year's Rugby Championship. Lions head coach Andy Farrell. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho 'I'm looking forward to Les Kiss coming in and taking over. I actually apologised to the players a little while ago, I bit one of their heads off and my son had had a bad day,' he revealed in reference to his son Luke, who has severe epilepsy. 'I can normally separate the two things but it does impact me when he's had a bad day and so I know that I have a short enough shelf life and need to be more present at home. I haven't been home for two months so as much as I just think they're a great group of young men, there's other things that I need to make sure I tick off.' Asked how he thought history might judge this Lions team, Schmidt said: 'It's always difficult to say. Their first half and the first Test, that was as good as I'd seen them and I felt since then we've inched our way back into the series that they won. 'They'll be judged as winners because that's what happened. I know a lot of their players very, very well and have a lot of admiration for them. I rate their coaching staff highly and I tip my hat to what was a highly successful tour, and I'm delighted that we managed to get one back at least.'
