Mathieu van der Poel remains the overall leader of the Tour de France – but only by a whisker as defending champion Tadej Pogacar won stage four, his 100th career victory, to move level with the Dutchman on time.
The world champion bested van der Poel in an uphill sprint to the line in Rouen, with two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard coming third as the general classification favourites vied for the stage win.
The trio remain on the provisional overall podium, with last year’s third-placed finisher Remco Evenepoel losing another handful of seconds as a gap opened up at the finish, to now sit ninth, 58 seconds back. Primoz Roglic – the final member of the so-called ‘Big Four’ – was also distanced in the closing stages and sits 13th, 1’27” back.
Florian Lipowitz, Felix Gall, and Ben O’Connor were among the big names to suffer as Pogacar and Vingegaard piled the pressure on to once again demonstrate that they are a cut above the rest.
Here is how the riders stand in each classification after stage four of the Tour de France.
Stage 4 results
1) Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), in 3:50:29
2) Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
3) Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike)
4) Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL)
5) Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ)
6) Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), all at same time
7) Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), +3”
8) Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), +3”
9) Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), +7”
10) Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels), +10”
General classification
1) Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), in 16:46:00
2) Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), at same time
3) Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), +8”
4) Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), +19”
5) Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels), +26”
6) Enric Mas (Movistar), +48”
7) Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) , +55”
8) Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), at same time
9) Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), +58”
10) Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), +1’02”
Points classification
1) Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) 92 pts
2) Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty) 87 pts
3) Mathieu van der Poel (Ned/Alpecin-Deceuninck) 80 pts
4) Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) 80 pts
5) Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) 72 pts
King of the mountains (KOM) classification
1) Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) 5pts
2) Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates XRG) 5pts
3) Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) 3 pts
4) Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) 2 pts
5) Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) 2 pts
Young riders’ classification
1) Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) in 16:46:26
2) Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) +29”
3) Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), +32”
4) Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), +36”
5) Joseph Blackmore (Israel-Premier Tech) +1’15”
