Tour de France 2024

Stage win and yellow jersey for Tadej Pogacar!

Tadej Pogacar

(Bild: AFP)

Top favorite Tadej Pogacar has won the 1st high mountain stage of the Tour de France and taken the yellow jersey again!

The Slovenian celebrated his 12th stage win in the Tour of France on Tuesday on the stage from Pinerolo to Valloire (140 kilometers). Felix Gall lost the connection to the top stars in the finale of the last climb to the Col du Galibier. The East Tyrolean lost two and a half minutes in eleventh place on the stage, but moved up to 12th place overall.

Gall's gap to Pogacar is already 3:21 minutes
Pogacar won the 4th stage with almost 4000 meters of climbing just over half a minute ahead of Remco Evenepoel, Pogacar's UAE teammate Juan Ayuso, Primoz Roglic and defending champion Jonas Vingegaard. Gall arrived around two minutes later in the next larger group. Last year's eighth-placed rider from East Tyrol moved up six positions in the overall classification, but his gap to Pogacar is already 3:21 minutes.

The two-time Tour winner from Slovenia took over the leader's jersey from Richard Carapaz, who was unable to keep up in the last third of the final climb and ultimately opened up a gap of five minutes. Pogacar, who had already worn yellow after day 2, leads ahead of a flat stage on Wednesday 45 seconds ahead of the Belgian Tour debutant Evenepoel (Soudal). Vingegaard from the Visma team is 50 seconds back in third. Red Bull captain Roglic and Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos) are more than a minute behind the leader.

"That was more or less the plan!"
"I am very, very happy. That was more or less the plan, we executed it superbly. I won this dream stage solo, that's incredible. I feel very good, I hope it continues like this," said Pogacar.

Pogacar's teammates Almeida and Ayuso dictate the pace
On the way to Sestriere (2050 m) and over the Col de Montgenevre (1850 m), a breakaway group determined the stage action. On the long climb to the Galibier (2650 m), however, the teams of the favorites increased the pace and the last escapee was caught seven kilometers before the highest point. Gall stayed in the lead group, which was getting smaller and smaller due to the pace dictated by Pogacar teammates Joao Almeida and Ayuso, for a long time, but four kilometers before the top of the pass he also had to let go. Pogacar successfully attacked from the small top group 800 meters before the crest. Only Vingegaard was able to follow the Slovenian for a short time, who extended his lead significantly on the long descent to the finish.

Wednesday will be quieter for the classement riders. It goes from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Saint Vulbas, where a bunch sprint is likely after 177 kilometers.

The result of stage 4:
1st Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE 3:46:38 hrs.
2. Remco Evenepoel (BEL) Soudal +35 sec.
3. Juan Ayuso (ESP) UAE
4th Primoz Roglic (SLO) Red Bull - same time
5th Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) +37
Further:
11th Felix Gall (AUT) Decathlon +2:42 min.
19th Gregor Mühlberger (AUT) Movistar +4:01
82nd Marco Haller (AUT) Red Bull +17:10

The overall standings:
1st Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE 19:06:38 hrs.
2nd Remco Evenepoel (BEL) Soudal +0:45 min.
3rd Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) +0:50
Further:
12th Felix Gall (AUT) Decathlon +3:21
81st Gregor Mühlberger (AUT) Movistar +49:18
112th Marco Haller (AUT) Red Bull +1:04:39 hrs.