Slovenian Tadej Pogacar went on the offensive on Tuesday. As the peloton returned to France after three stages in Italy, the UAE Emirates climber won stage 4 of the Tour de France, reclaiming the yellow jersey in the process.
Published on: 02/07/2024 – 17:02Modified on: 02/07/2024 – 17:19
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First stage in the Alps and first truths. Tadej Pogacar won the first round of his duel with Jonas Vingegaard to win the Tour de France by showing himself to be faster on the slopes of Galibier and in the long descent towards Valloire. While he had dropped the yellow jersey the day before, the Slovenian has already recovered it.
Also read: Tour de France: Pogacar, Grégoire, Bardet and Vingegaard… 12 riders we’re going to hear about
The UAE leader won by 35 seconds over Belgian Remco Evenepoel after attacking in the final kilometre of the Galibier. His great rival Jonas Vingegaard was the only one who managed to follow him, but the Dane lost ground shortly before the summit and was caught on the descent to Valloire to eventually finish fifth.
Carapaz quickly released
In the general classification, Pogacar, who took full advantage of bonuses at the summit of the Galibier and at the finish, now has a 45-second lead over Evenepoel and 50 seconds over Vingegaard, the two-time defending winner.
He had given up the yellow jersey on Monday to the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz who was quickly dropped in the Galibier, like many other leaders such as Romain Bardet.
Primoz Roglic dropped back at the end of the Galibier but the Slovenian managed to catch up with the Evenepoel group on the descent. He is in fifth place, 1 min 14 sec behind his compatriot in the general classification.
“Pogi” took advantage of the train of his impressive UAE team, outnumbered on the snow-covered slopes of the Cerces giant.
Shortly before the summit, there were still three of them surrounding their Slovenian leader, while Vingegaard and Roglic were alone.
A symbol of this power, Pogacar’s teammate and Spanish prodigy Juan Ayuso is now fourth overall.
With AFP
