ROUEN, France: Tadej Pogacar blew past his rivals in an “explosive” finish to take Tour de France stage four at Rouen on Tuesday and claim his 100th professional victory.
“That was really pure, classic Tour-de-France-style explosive,” said an elated Pogacar.
The win did not quite bring him the overall lead. Dutch powerhouse Mathieu van der Poel finished second to keep the yellow jersey.
Pogacar attacked on an incline to the line to finish just ahead of Van der Poel with Jonas Vingegaard third.
It was the 26-year-old Slovenian’s 18th Tour de France stage win as he seeks a fourth overall triumph on the Tour.
“There was big adrenalin and a big field of contenders,” Pogacar said.
Fans were treated to another Pogacar-Vingegaard head-to-head duel as five hills made the final 40km a roller-coaster.
Van der Poel also entered the fray and kept the overall lead he took from Alpecin teammate Jasper Philipsen, who quit the Tour injured after a nasty fall on Monday.
“Jasper needs to recover, and I hope he understands how hard I tried to win for him today,” Van der Poel said.
On the day’s final real climb, Pogacar dropped all his rivals with only Vingegaard offering a real fight.
But the big Dutch rider and the slender Dane both came back at Pogacar, making him fight all the way to the line in a thunderous finale.
The same trio top the overall standings, with Pogacar second and Vingegaard in third.
Van der Poel took the overall lead on stage two but risks losing it on Wednesday’s time trial.
“I should be happy to have the jersey again,” said Van der Poel. “I was surrounded by climbers out there you know.”
“Tadej was stronger and it’s as simple as that.”
Unlike the opening three stages, there was hardly a puff of wind and not a drop of rain, but there were still plenty of falls.
There was also a knifing incident with a man at Rouen slightly injuring a police officer before himself being shot as he tried to escape.
Neither the police officer nor the alleged culprit suffered life-threatening injuries.
Stage five 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 course 59sec faster than Pogacar and Vingegaard.
“Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be the big day, the real test of how good everyone is,” said Pogacar.
“Don’t count Remco out,” he added. “He’s the best in the world and he’ll be going full gas, like me.”
The man who designs the race, Thierry Gouvenou, predicted big time differences on the time trial.
“It’s flat and runs through exposed plains. This is a course designed for the specialists. You need to be aerodynamic and powerful,” he said, which suggests it could suit Evenepoel in particular.
“This is a red letter day for all the main contenders.”
Rarely lacking in confidence, Evenepoel was true to form.
“I can put a minute into them all tomorrow,” he said in Rouen after the fourth stage.
The first mountains come as late as stage 10 over the volcanic landscape of the Puy de Dome, with two more colossal climbing days in the Pyrenees before the blockbuster final week in the Alps.
