As it happened: a new race leader after a solo Alpine attack in the Tour de France
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Joao Almeida and Juan Ayuso were both key players in UAE Team Emirates dominating performance on the Galibier, setting things up perfectly for Pogačar to attack and shredding the field. James Moultrie has more on how they were instrumental in reducing the lead peloton to less than ten riders here.
A shot of Pogačar dropping Vingegaard on the Galibier
Some words from Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), second on the stage and now second overall. Although he was dropped just before Vingegaard when Tadej Pogačar attacked close to the summit of the Galibier, the Belgian then recouped his losses on the descent.
“It feels good, and it’s great to finish second to the best rider in the world,” he said.
“As a team, we have nothing to complain about – the strategy was good. It was a good day for us.”
“Over 2,000 metres [above sea level], it gets harder to breathe and any acceleration can have a big effect. WhenPogačar attacked, we were almost at 2,600 metres. I tried to keep up, but it was still a bit too much above my level. “
Abrahamsen is also four points clear of Pogačar and remains leader in the mountains ranking, while Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) is currently heading the BYR classification. Movistar, though, have been ousted from their top spot in the teams classification, now headed by UAE Team Emirates.
No changes in the green jersey leader, incidentally, Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) remains on top with 87 points, four ahead of stage 3 winner Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty).
At the other end of the spectrum on what was a perilously short climbing stage for the sprinters, incidentally, all of them made it home before the time cut of 40 minutes, with the last group crossing the line some 36 minutes down. And on Wednesday’s stage 5, a flat run from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Saint-Vulbas, they’ll likely be back in action.
Conclusions? This wasn’t a knockout blow by Tadej Pogačar but it certainly has confirmed his status as top favourite for the Tour de France, has given him the upper hand on the overall, and has shown that UAE Team Emirates are, at the moment, the strongest team for the mountains by a hefty margin.
However, his margin on Jonas Vingegaard is not a huge one, either. So if Pogačar can be more than satisfied with how his Tour stage went, the defending champion is clearly up for giving his arch-rival a real run for his money. After his long road back from the injuries of April, that’s no mean achievement. Friday’s 25 kilometre time trial will be another important, but not decisive, test.
Furthemore afield, neither Primož Roglič nor Remco Evenepoel are out of the GC picture, it’s worth noting that Evenepoel is running ahead of Vingegaard after the first major mountain stage, an excellent result for the Belgian, surely a favourite for Friday as well. And Carlos Rodriguez is now clearly established as Ineos GC leader as well.
But we’re only four days into the Tour, so an awful lot can still happen.
And here is a photo of Pogačar, back in yellow again
Overall classification after stage 4
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal-QuickStep 0:45
3 Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike 0:50
4 Juan Ayuso (Spa) UAE Team Emirates 1:10
5 Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe 1:14
6 Carlos Rodríguez (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers 1:16
7 Mikel Landa (Spa) Soudal-QuickStep 1:32
8 Joao Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates
9 Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek 3:20
10 Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers 3:21
Result
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal-QuickStep 0:35
3. Juan Ayuso (Spa) UAE Team Emirates
4. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
5. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-A-Bike ) 0:37
6. Carlos Rodríguez (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers
7. Mikel Landa (Spa) Soudal-QuickStep 0:53
8. Joao Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates
9. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek 2:41
10. Santiago Buitrago (Col) Bahrain Victorious
The complete Cyclingnews report on today’s stage, courtesy of Barry Ryan and complete with extra analysis, photos and results, is here:
Tour de France: Tadej Pogačar snares yellow with stage 4 victory in high mountains
Some first words from new race leader Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, after taking the twelfthTour de France stage victory of his career:
“I’m super-happy, this was more or less the plan and we executed it really well. It was like a dream stage and I finished it off solo. It’s incredible.”
“I want to hit hard today, I’ve been training here a lot of weeks already and it felt like a home stage passing through Sestrieres and Montgenevre. Bonus seconds on the top, too. I felt confident and I had to try.”
As for his attack and downhill acceleration away from Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and the rest of the field, he argued, “I didn’t want to go too early because of the wind and i had to do all the difference in the last few hundred metres. I know the downhill but I was a little bit surprised to see wet road in the first few corners. So it was a bit scary. But this descent is super fast and if you know the road also it helps.”
Regarding his advantage on Vingegaard, he said, “It’s good news. I can be happy with this. I’m superhappy with how I feel on the bike. So let’s continue today with this attitude I have now.”
And here is a first image of Pogačar crossing the line and reclaiming the race lead he held for one day on stage 2.
Tadej Pogačar has now opened a 45 second lead overall on Remco Evenepoel, with Jonas Vingegaard at 50 seconds. After four days of racing and with almost all the mountains to come, that’s quite a statement.
Guided home by teammate Ben Healy, former maillot jaune Richard Carapaz finishes more than five minutes down.
Vingegaard drifted off the pace a little coming into the finish and will perhaps lose a few more seconds. Pogačar, meanwhile, has also gained an 18-second time bonus.
The clock is ticking and Evenepoel comes across the line, about 34 seconds back. Ayuso takes third.
Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates wins stage 4 of the Tour de France and takes the race lead.
Pogačar is into the barrier-ed area looking for his first Tour de France stage win since the Vosges last year.
Two kilometres to go and Pogačar is on the outskirts of Valloire. At a mere 90kmh on this part of the descent.
Three kilometres to go
Evenepoel is also coming across to the four ahead. So now five riders behind Pogacar: Remco, Roglic, Vingegaard, Rodriguez and Ayuso.
The trio of chasers catch Vingegaard. Will they work together?
Five kilometres to go
The gap between the defending Tour champion and Pogačar rises a little further, to 29 seconds. After taking 10 seconds on Vingegaard on the Galibier, so far Pogačar has more than doubled his advantage on the descent.
Pogačar is opening up a gap on Vingegaard, to around 18 seconds now.
10 kilometres to go
Evenepoel is still at 30 seconds and on the point of being joined by Primoz Roglic.
Pogačar is touching speeds of 80 kmh on this descent. Thankfully the roads are dry here.
Race leader Carapaz is at more than four minutes on Pogačar at the summit of the Galibier.
The gap between Pogačar and Vingegaard is hovering at around 8 seconds as Pogačar moves onto broader, much drier roads.
Evenepoel is 14 seconds down as Pogačar thunders down the first part of the descent.
Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates has a seven second gap on Vingegaard at the summit of the Galibier.
20 metres between Pogacar and Vingegaard
Pogacar opens up a small gap on Vingegaard with 300 metres to the summit.
Pogacar and Vingegaard are opening a gap.
Pogacar attacks 800 metres from the summit. Vingegaard follows.
20 kilometres to go
Only 1,500 metres to the top and the ‘Big Four’ for the GC in the 2024 Tour are still ahead and together.
Ayuso takes over from Almeida, with three UAE riders in the front group of eight. A notable effort from the young Spanish racer in his Tour de France debut.
Ayuso, Vingegaard, Pogacar, Almeida, Rodriguez, Evenepoel, Landa and Roglic in the front group.
Three kilometres to the summit and Roglic looks to be struggling, but not yet dropped.
Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) also dropped and another big burst of climbing power from Almeida.
UAE still have four riders in the front group of around 10.
Former leader Romain Bardet (DSM Firmenich-PostNL) and Enric Mas (Movistar) are both dropped as is Jorgenson. Vingegaard by himself.
Both Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel are still in the group as Adam Yates, a podium finisher in the Tour de France last year and teammate for Pogacar, comes to the front.
Five kilometres from the summit and Carapaz has lost 30 seconds, SImon Yates at two minutes. There’ll be a new race leader tonight, but who will it be?
Vingegaard is looking very comfortable in third place in the string for now, right behind teammate Mattia Jorgenson
in the space of a kilometre as the road steepens notably, the bunch has shrunk to just 25 units at most.
After Sivakov’s brief but intense effort, Joao Almeida is the next to come to the fore for UAE, just when Tour de France leader Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) is dropped.
Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) also in difficulties.
26 kilometres to go
Gaudu caught, and Lazkano has 15 seconds on the bunch. Pavel Sivakov takes over from Marc Soler for UAE.
A quick reminder of the top ten on GC:
1 Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost 15:20:18
3 Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal-QuickStep
Eight kilometres of clmbing left and still around 50 riders in the front group of favourites.
No sign of Carapaz weakening, by the way, with US National Champ and teammate Sean Quinn just in front of him. Soudal-QuickStep still have five riders alongside Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard is looking almost equally well surrounded, albeit minus Van Aert and Laporte, both of whom were dropped.
Lazkano makes his third lone last-ditch effort as the race powers through a snow tunnel. But the gap is just 41 seconds back to the peloton
A shot of UAE leading a fast-shrinking peloton on the lower slopes of the Galibier…
Wellens swings off and Marc Soler comes to the fore now for Pogacar.
Lazkano makes a pronounced dig, Gaudu following him. But there’s precious little collaboration between the two and the end of the break appears to be nigh.
Van der Poel caught by the UAE-led peloton. Wellens still powering away for team leader Tadej Pogacar.
Gaudu and Lazkano have been joined by Chris Juul-Jensen (Jayco-AIUIa) and Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), but the gap is shrinking fast.
TV images on Eurosport showing that there are some wet segments on the top of the Galibier where minature snow avalanches have fallen onto the road. But the road itself has been cleared.
Lazkano has been joined by Gaudu and the two have a small gap on the remnants of the crumbling break.
Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease a Bike) dropped from the peloton and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) sits up in the break.
Gaudu’s move brings a response from former Spanish National Champion Oier Lazkano (Movistar), who follows his teammate Nairo Quintana’s ghostly wheeltracks up the Galibier.
34 kilometres to go
We’ve still got just over 15 kilometres of climbing to the summit of the Galibier, by the way, but UAE are clearly making their intentions known from a very long way out.
Tim Wellens takes over from UAE teammate Nils Politt on the front of the peloton. And the gap shrinks down to 1:34.
If – and it remains very much an ‘if’ for now – Tadej Pogačar does launch a significantly successful attack on yellow today, there will be no lack of recollections that it was on this climb that Marco Pantani, the last rider to do the Giro-Tour in 1998, made a major move to claim the maillot jaune on the Galibier, dropping previous year’s winner Jan Ullrich. That was coming up the other side, mind, and in much wetter weather than today.
The weather is overcast, but dry for now, thankfully, meaning the twisting descent off the Galibier will be a little less risky than if tackled in the wet.
Nils Politt continues to grind out a powerful pace for UAE Team Emirates, with the gap, that had briefly ballooned to three minutes, now shrinking to just over two.
40 kilometres to go
Marc Madiot, Groupama-FDJ general manager, is on the roadside in soigneur mode, handing out bidons to his three riders in the front group, including team leader David Gaudu.
3%, 4%, 3% – the 17 riders are keeping a sustained pace on the long, long drag up to the official foot of the Galibier, passing the race sign saying the climb ‘proper’ has begun and with 22 kilometres to go to the summit. They’ve already been going uphill for quite a while now, so a message like that can’t be anything but daunting.
Quintana is not on the Tour this year, by the way, but there are rumours he will be signing an extension with Movistar for 2025. Watch this space.
A flashback to 2019, when the race last took this road over the Galibier and then dropped down to Valloire, the stage finish and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) took a lone victory.
47 kilometres to go
17-rider break: Odd Christian Eiking and Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Warren Barguil (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek), Valentin Madouas, David Gaudu and Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Cristian Rodríguez and Raul Garcíá Pierna (Arkea-B&B Hotels), Kobe Goossen (Intermarché-Wanty), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan), Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Oier Lazkano (Movistar), Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies), and Chris Juul-Jensen (Jayco-AIUIa)
Bunch: At 2:13
Green jersey group: at 12:35
The race moves out of Briancon and the road begins to rise gently. We’re onto the lower slopes of the Galibier.
Talking of which, here is a picture of UAE earlier on today on the front, looking – well – ominous.
As we come into Briancon, the UAE Team Emirates start to mass at the front. Ominous.
Still powering downhill, the race reaches Briancon, scene of many a Tour de France and Criterium du Dauphine finish.
The peloton briefly splits on the descent of the Montgenevre. UAE are in the front group, with Carapaz in a second group behind. Gaps are minimal for now and it should come back together, but as a statement of intentions, the split could be an omen for how hard the fight will be on the slopes of the Galibier…
The first segment, sometimes classified separately is the far gentler Col du Lauteret, essentially a long, straightforward, A-road drag up from Briancon through the valley to the crossroads where left takes you down to the foot of Alpe d’Huez, and right, up to the top of the Galibier.
We’re fast approaching the foot of the Galibier, here’s a profile of what they are about to face.
Still to come:
Km 120.6: Climb: Col du Galibier (HC, 23km at 5.1%)
It’s a fast, well-surfaced descent off the Montgenevre, but there are a lot of hairpins as well.
2:25 on the bunch at the summit, incidentally, meaning the break’s chances of staying away to the finish exist, but they are still limited.
Barguil goes for it again on the summit of the Montgenevre, but Williams once again outsprints him. More points for the Briton.
One kilometre to the top and riders are grabbing bottles in a feed zone before the long descent to Briancon and the crunch climb of the day, the Galibier.
The Tour de France passes the French border and back to home soil.
Four kilometres to the top of the Montgenevre and the Tour’s return to France. Paris-Roubaix runner-up Nils Politt finds himself in rather different terrain, hauling the UAE-led peloton over the second last climb of the day. Warmer weather, too, than usually what’s on offer in Roubaix – for now.
74…
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