Tour de France 2025 LIVE: Stage 4 result and reaction as Mathieu van der Poel eyes second stage win

11km to go: The Frenchman is out the back and Aussie Ben O’Connor, who suffered in a crash a couple of days ago, is suffering here again too with this lightning-quick pace.

13km to go: The bunch are onto the Côte de la Grand’Mare (1.8 km at 4.8%), with UAE leading things. Wellens in his full polka dot gear comes to the front, with Pogacar on his wheel.

Does the defending champ actually fancy the stage win, and yellow? Vingegaard is right behind him, the terrible twins, never separated. Evenepoel is moving up too. Where’s Roglic?

19km to go: Ben Healy – possibly caught out in that crash – is off the back, and that’s not ideal for EF after riding for him all day.

Martinez has been caught, and that’s the end of the day for the breakaway. He’s soon at the back, but not because his legs have given out: teammate Santiago Buitrago is in trouble and needs dragging back.

Julian Alaphilippe, after a frantic chase, has only just got back on. That was a very slow wheel change and he’s suffered for it. He’d have been good on this sort of finish, but it’s unlikely he’ll have the legs now.

Tobias Halland Johannessen takes the KOM point, ahead of Tim Wellens. Two climbs remain.

22km to go: It’s going to be nuts from here on in. Up next is the very short Cote de Bonsecours, 900m at 7%.

Lenny Martinez has been exhorted on the team radio, ‘Don’t look back, Lenny!’ However, of course, he’s looking back. In better news for him, he’s nearly onto the climb, which suits him much better than anything flat or downhill. But he’s only got five seconds on the bunch.

Jonas Abrahamsen, amazingly, is back on the front along with a posse of Uno X-Mobility teammates.

23km to go: Oh dear, a huge crash at the back, possibly a coming together of wheels in a frantic fight for positioning on the approach to a tricky corner. Valentin Paret-Peintre has gone down; Primoz Roglic has narrowly escaped it.

Oh no, the French climber is in tears at the side of the road, and that’ll be a huge blow to Soudal Quick-Step if he departs – he’s an enormous asset to Remco Evenepoel’s mountain squad.

27km to go: The riders are all onto the Côte de Belbeuf (1.3km at an average of a biting 9.2%). Thomas Gachignard is the first of the breakaway quartet to be caught. It’s looking like curtains… but Lenny Martinez has attacked! The climber is off.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG are on the front now, just 16 seconds behind the Frenchman, as his companions are absorbed.

Martinez takes the Belbeuf KOM points, followed by Tim Wellens – wearing the KOM jersey – for UAE.

29km to go: Jonas Abrahamsen launches a flyer and sails over the intermediate sprint at Saint-Adrien with ease, with Asgreen rolling over second behind him, leading Martinez and Gachignard over the line.

Back in the bunch – only 20 seconds back now – Jonathan Milan, in the green jersey, puts in a dig to mop up some remaining points ahead of rival Biniam Girmany.

Further back, Julian Alaphilippe has had an unfortunately-timed bike change and is now nearly two minutes off the pace – but a teammate drops back to shepherd him on.

34km to go: Kasper Asgreen is largely the driving force in this breakaway, hauling them over the flatter ground as we approach the business end of this stage.

There are 20 points on offer for the first rider over the intermediate sprint at Saint-Adrien. After that it’s back to climbing, with four categorised ascents in quick succession.

Still a gap of a minute back to the peloton.

39km to go: Confirmation that Asgreen took the one KOM point available on the Cote Jacques Anquetil.

The breakaway are working together again now, travelling at a brisk 63km/h, but the gap is down to 1’05” as they approach another uncategorised bump.

10km to go until the intermediate sprint, too. Let’s hope for less drama there than at yesterday’s.

45km to go: Asgreen attacks for the King of the Mountains points! The other three give furious chase and Martinez looks to nick the points on the line… but that looked to me like Asgreen hung on.

Back in the bunch, it looks like a few more riders have gone down in the battle for positioning on the climb, but nobody looks badly hurt.

Further down Felix Gall is dropped – possibly a mechanical issue, as this isn’t the sort of terrain the Austrian would normally struggle on.