Major Stage 4 crash knocks down multiple riders
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SBS Australia
29 minutes ago
- SBS Australia
Tour de France stage four: Pogacar claims 100th career victory with 'explosive' win
Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogacar blew past his rivals in an "explosive" finish to take Tour de France stage four at Rouen on Wednesday morning AEST and claim his 100th professional victory. "That was really pure, classic Tour-de-France-style explosive," said an elated Pogacar. The win did not quite bring him the overall lead. Dutch powerhouse Mathieu van der Poel finished second to keep the yellow jersey. Pogacar attacked on an incline to the line to finish just ahead of Van der Poel with Jonas Vingegaard third. It was the 26-year-old cyclist's 18th Tour de France stage win as he seeks a fourth overall triumph on the Tour. "There was big adrenaline and a big field of contenders," Pogacar said. Fans were treated to another Pogacar-Vingegaard head-to-head duel as five hills made the final 40km a roller-coaster. Fans were treated to a head-to-head duel between Danish cyclist Jonas Vingegaard and Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogacar. Source: AAP / Belga / Sipa USA / Bernard Papon "Jasper needs to recover, and I hope he understands how hard I tried to win for him today," Van der Poel said. On the day's final real climb, Pogacar dropped all his rivals, with only Vingegaard offering a real fight. But van der Poel and Vingegaard both came back at Pogacar, making him fight all the way to the line in a thunderous finale. The same trio top the overall standings, with Pogacar second and Vingegaard in third. "I should be happy to have the jersey again," said Van der Poel. "I was surrounded by climbers out there, you know." "Tadej was stronger and it's as simple as that." Unlike the opening three stages, there was hardly a puff of wind and not a drop of rain, but there were still plenty of falls. Police shoot man wielding knife There was also a knifing incident with a man at Rouen slightly injuring a police officer before being shot by French riot police as he tried to escape. Neither the police officer nor the alleged culprit suffered life-threatening injuries. Time trial for stage five Stage five will shake up the overall standings with a 33km individual time trial around Caen. The stage is being billed as the day Remco Evenepoel will finally slip into the overall leader's yellow jersey. To do so, the 25-year-old Belgian world and Olympic champion in the discipline will need to cover the course 59 seconds faster than Pogacar and Vingegaard. "Tomorrow will be the big day, the real test of how good everyone is," said Pogacar. "Don't count Remco out," he added. "He's the best in the world, and he'll be going full gas, like me." The man who designs the race, Thierry Gouvenou, predicted big time differences on the time trial. "It's flat and runs through exposed plains. This is a course designed for the specialists. You need to be aerodynamic and powerful," he said, which suggests it could suit Evenepoel in particular. "This is a red letter day for all the main contenders." Rarely lacking in confidence, Evenepoel was true to form. "I can put a minute into them all tomorrow," he said in Rouen after the fourth stage. The first mountains come as late as stage 10 over the volcanic landscape of the Puy de Dome, with two more colossal climbing days in the Pyrenees before the blockbuster final week in the Alps. The place to watch the 2025 Tour de France - LIVE, FREE and EXCLUSIVE - plus the fourth edition of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, is right here on the SBS On Demand Hub .
NBC Sports
38 minutes ago
- NBC Sports
Pogačar claims 100th career win, beating Van der Poel in sprint during Tour de France Stage 4
Defending champion Tadej Pogačar secured the 100th professional victory of his stellar career in typically flamboyant style, beating Mathieu Van der Poel in a dash to the line to win the hilly fourth stage of the Tour de France on Tuesday. Van der Poel was the better sprinter of the two at the end of Sunday's second stage and looked set to clinch a second win in this year's race when he attacked about 200 meters from out and led. But the defending Tour champion somehow found another gear to surge past him at the line, then pumped his fists in celebration. The 26-year-old Slovenian star wore a cap with 100 written on it when he spoke after the stage. His long list of wins includes 18 stage wins at the Tour de France, the world road race, a multitude of one-day classics and other stage wins at races like the Giro d'Italia, the Paris-Nice and Critérium du Dauphiné. 'It was an amazing finale, a classic stage, the end was even more explosive than we thought,' he said. 'I'm very happy to have won the 100th victory (overall) of my career, here on the Tour de France wearing the world champion's jersey.' Pogačar and Van der Poel have exactly the same overall time of 16 hours, 46 minutes after four stages, and count one stage win each, but Van der Poel kept the yellow jersey because of better finishing positions in the other two stages. 'I would liked to have won but Tadej was the strongest today. I am glad to keep the yellow jersey, but tomorrow will be hard,' Van der Poel said. 'I tried to launch my sprint but I just didn't have the legs.' The 174-kilometer stage suited allrounders, starting from Amiens and ending with five consecutive small climbs to the Normandy city of Rouen. The first of the climbs — Côte Jacques Anquetil — bore the name of a five-time Tour champion. The Frenchman dominated cycling in the 1960s, when he also won the Giro d'Italia twice and the Spanish Vuelta. The peloton's pace picked up strongly heading into the last two climbs, with speeds reaching 60 kph (37 mph). Pogačar attacked on the last climb up Rampe Saint-Hilaire and initially dropped archrival Jonas Vingegaard, but the two-time Tour winner responded well and caught up. As the frontrunners turned for home, Van der Poel was right behind and then launched a trademark attack, like he did to win Stage 2 on Monday by outsprinting Pogačar. But this time roles were reversed as Pogačar claimed the 18th stage win of his Tour career. Vingegaard finished third. Riders enjoyed dry weather conditions after rain on Sunday and during Monday's crash-marred third stage — where Belgian cyclist Jasper Philipsen, the Stage 1 winner, retired from the race after breaking a collarbone in a heavy crash. He had successful surgery on Monday night. Yellow card for Coquard French rider Bryan Coquard was shown a yellow card by the race jury for causing Philipsen's fall, meaning the Cofidis team rider will be excluded altogether if he gets another yellow. The sanction came despite Coquard not being at fault for the crash — Coquard was himself knocked off balance by another rider — and apologizing to Philipsen and his team. 'It's an unjustified penalty, Bryan didn't make any mistake, it's an unfortunate racing incident,' Cofidis team manager Cédric Vasseur said. 'Otherwise we give yellow cards to riders involved in all the crashes accidentally, we give out 25 each stage and all go home after four days.' Wednesday's stage is quick Stage 5 is a 33-kilometer (20.5-mile) time trial around the Normandy city of Caen, and the overall standings could be shaken up a bit. This year's race is held entirely in France, with no stages held abroad, and ends on July 27 in Paris.
Observer
an hour ago
- Observer
Merlier wins stage three of Tour de France
DUNKIRK: Belgian Tim Merlier pipped Italian Jonathan Milan right at the line to win stage three of the Tour de France at Dunkirk on Monday, as Mathieu van der Poel retained the race lead. The stage was marred by a series of falls, but the two favourites for the title Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard finished safely in the main pack and remain in second and third place overall behind Van der Poel. The flat 179 km run from Valenciennes along the Belgian border was marked above all by a nasty fall that caused Jasper Philipsen to quit with severe grazing and a suspected fracture. The fall happened during an intermediate sprint 60 km away from Dunkirk and ripped the green best sprinter's jersey from Philipsen's back as he slid along the road in the 70kph crash. Much of what Philipsen's team Alpecin had planned for the Tour revolved around the sprinter, team-mate Van der Poel revealed. "It's always one of our goals to win stages so this is a bad day," the 30-year-old said. Van der Poel suggested the wind had emboldened the sprinters. "In a head wind it's easier to come from behind in the sprints, it made things more chaotic," he said. There were three more falls, including two nasty looking ones in the finale with Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel, Merlier's teammate, involved. A MESS Merlier, 32, grew up just over the border from Dunkirk and had been hoping to win the opening stage on Sunday. "That was a mess," Merlier said of the falls. "I lost a great deal of energy getting in position but it was a good bike throw. I knew I'd beat Milan." Lidl-Trek's Milan led over most of the final 150m, but even without sealing the stage win his efforts were still rewarded as he inherited the green sprint points jersey from the stricken Philipsen. Van der Poel in the leader's yellow jersey is the grandson of French cycling legend Raymond Poulidor, who came second in the Tour de France seven times, but never won and never got to don the yellow tunic. Another Belgian, the national champion Tim Wellens, gave cross-border fans even more to celebrate as he won the day's only climb, the 2.3 km ascent of Mont Cassel at 31 km from the finish line. The 34-year-old will now hold the king of the mountains polka dot jersey overnight. Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin is in the best under-25's rider's white jersey after staying in the finishing mix in all three stages. Regional police said one million spectators had lined the roadsides on the opening day, and while rain dissuaded that kind of turnout for stage two, huge crowds turned out again for the run to Dunkirk. The eleven bikes stolen from outside the Cofidis team hotel early on Sunday were all found before the stage's end — five of them were recovered abandoned in a forest early on Monday with the others being tracked down by the police later in the day. Tuesday's fourth stage is a 174 km run from Amiens, as the Tour leaves the North region, to Rouen in Normandy, with five hills in the final 25 km designed to spark a series of race-splitting attacks. The first section of the Tour is raced through the north and west of France. The volcanic landscape of the Puy de Dome presents the first mountains as late as stage 10, with two more colossal climb days in the Pyrenees before the blockbuster final week in the Alps. — AFP
