Tadej Pogačar has won the first difficult mountain stage of the 111th Tour de France and regained the yellow jersey. The Slovenian Giro winner prevailed after 139.6 kilometers on the fourth stage with the difficult climb to the 2,642 meter high Col du Galibier, ahead of the Belgian time trial world champion Remco Evenepoel and his Spanish teammate Juan Ayuso.
On the stage from Pinerolo to Valloire in France, Pogačar took over the yellow jersey of the overall winner ahead of Richard Carapaz from Ecuador.
On the 23-kilometer-long and 5.1 percent-steep climb to the Galibier, Pogačar and defending champion Jonas Vingegaard once again faced off. A few meters before the top of the mountain, Pogačar broke away from Vingegaard, impressively mastered the descent to the finish and increased the gap to the Dane to 50 seconds. Primož Roglič, captain of the German Red Bull Bora-hansgrohe team, came fourth.
Thanks to the bonus seconds, Pogačar now has a 45-second lead in the overall standings over Evenepoel and 50 seconds over Vingegaard, who is third. Previously leading Olympic champion Carapaz has fallen far behind and is currently in 22nd place.
“I’m super happy, that was the plan and we executed it well. It was a dream stage for me. I wanted to hit hard today, I trained a lot for that,” said Pogačar.
On Wednesday, the sprinters can again hope for a mass finish on the fifth stage over 177.4 kilometers from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Saint-Vulbas. Only two easier climbs of the fourth category have to be overcome.
Tour de France
more on the subject
Z+ (subscription required content); Tour de France: Tormented into Heaven
Tadej Pogačar has won the first difficult mountain stage of the 111th Tour de France and regained the yellow jersey. The Slovenian Giro winner prevailed after 139.6 kilometers on the fourth stage with the difficult climb to the 2,642 meter high Col du Galibier, ahead of the Belgian time trial world champion Remco Evenepoel and his Spanish teammate Juan Ayuso.
On the stage from Pinerolo to Valloire in France, Pogačar took over the yellow jersey of the overall winner ahead of Richard Carapaz from Ecuador.
On the 23-kilometer-long and 5.1 percent-steep climb to the Galibier, Pogačar and defending champion Jonas Vingegaard once again faced off. A few meters before the top of the mountain, Pogačar broke away from Vingegaard, mastered the descent to the finish line impressively and increased the gap to the Dane to 50 seconds. Primož Roglič, captain of the German Red Bull Bora-hansgrohe team, came fourth.
