Tour de France stage four: Tadej Pogacar wins sensational finale in Rouen to bring up 100 career victories

New York Times

4 hours ago

Tadej Pogacar took the 100th victory of his stellar career in Rouen on Tuesday, beating Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Vingegaard to win stage four of the Tour de France.
As expected all the action was condensed into a breathtaking final 30 kilometres, with Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates – XRG squad setting the pace into the foot of the penultimate climb, the Côte de la Grand'Mare, before Vingegaard's Team Visma-Lease a Bike squad took over, with Victor Campenaerts putting in an incredible effort to string out of the peloton.
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Pogacar's attack, when it came, was as exciting as it was predictable — the Slovenian launching on the Rampe Saint-Hilaire, with only Vingegaard able to respond. The Slovenian briefly gapped his rival but was unable to properly distance him and a chasing group — which included Remco Evenepoel, Matteo Jorgenson, Van der Poel and Oscar Onley — rejoined them on the descent.
That regrouping ensured a battle royale on the final rise to the finish line, with yellow jersey Van der Poel not quite able to match Pogacar's sprint.
Jacob Whitehead and Duncan Alexander dissect the key moments from a memorable stage.
Find all of The Athletic's Tour de France coverage here: nytimes.com/athletic/tag/cycling
It may have been a short climb on Stage Four, but Tuesday was a reminder that this race is between two men — Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard.
It was an attack that had been telegraphed, but when Pogacar rose from his saddle on the sharp penultimate ascent of the 800m Rampe Saint-Hilaire, only Vingegaard was able to go with him. The pair gathered metres on the peloton with the ease of throwing out rope — with Vingegaard impressively staying glued to Pogacar's wheel. It was the first demonstration that his training focus on acceleration was having tangible results.
Pogacar's face contorted as he strained to shift the Dane. Effort is a rare sight from him.
🔥 @TamauPogi attacks on the rampe Saint-Hilaire! Only Jonas Vingegaard follows him! The duel is on!
🔥 @TamauPogi attaque dans la rampe Saint-Hilaire ! Seul Jonas Vingegaard le suit ! Le duel est lancé !#TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/SytodWGQop
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 8, 2025
'With so many good riders in the final, you're always a bit on the edge,' Pogacar said post-stage. 'You never know what's going to happen — but you get this adrenaline of pure racing.'
The group came back together on the descent, stitched back by Remco Evenepoel, before the final uphill drag to the line. With Mathieu van der Poel in the group — the maillot jaune and a man who has beaten the Pogacar into second three times this season — the Slovenian, for once, was not the favourite.
But, having been led out by Joao Almeida, Pogacar sat off Van der Poel, and came round the Dutchman as the yellow jersey's legs faded. Pogacar won by a bike length, and with it, secured his 100th professional victory.
🤩 Relive this epic final km where @TamauPogi powered to his first stage win on the #TDF2025!
🤩 Retour sur cet incroyable dernier km qui a vu @TamauPogi remporter sa première victoire sur le #TDF2025 ! pic.twitter.com/USHTAWmkkj
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 8, 2025
'Joao did such a good job to lead me out, especially with people attacking all the time,' Pogacar said. 'To win at the Tour is incredible, in this (world champion's) jersey even more. One hundred victories. It's amazing.'
'(Pogacar) just had more left in the sprint and was stronger today,' Van der Poel added. He retained his yellow jersey, on the same time as Pogacar, ahead of tomorrow's 33km time trial in Caen.
Jacob Whitehead
Pogacar and Vingegaard might be two of the finest riders the Tour de France has ever witnessed, but stage four was a clear demonstration of why their team organizations have spent so much money assembling frighteningly deep squads, packed with the sort of names who could easily be team leaders elsewhere.
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For much of the day UAE and Visma were happy to sit in the bunch as the race made its way through Normandy, but when it all kicked off in the closing hour there were multiple heroes on both teams as they upped the pace to a level few others could handle.
Special mention should go to Victor Campenaerts — as usual, not wearing sunglasses — who did a huge turn for Visma between eight and six kilometres to go. The USA's Matteo Jorgenson also stepped up admirably for Vingegaard, and briefly looked like he might be able to counter-attack for the win in the closing stages.
For UAE, Jhonatan Narvaez, Joao Almeida and Tim Wellens all turned themselves inside out to put Pogacar into the position where he reliably does what few riders in the history of the sport have been able to. There was even the revelation that Wellens was sent to claim the polka dot jersey from his team leader yesterday, so Pogacar could attempt to collect his 100th win in the iconic rainbow jersey.
Plus a heartwarming display of sportsmanship and camaraderie too, as Wellens and Campenaerts — Belgians on the two competing teams — celebrated together as they crossed the line.
Behind the teams, friends for life 🥂#TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/pwXaK2GlJ0
— Christophe Diels ©️ (Geen expert) (@denbokkerijder) July 8, 2025
Cycling is famously a team sport which provides individual winners — and there are few clearer examples of that principle than the final hour of today's stage.
Duncan Alexander
As he sat on his rollers, Oscar Onley pulled out his phone and checked Pro Cycling Stats. The Scottish climber was so on the limit that he did not know where he had finished.
'I was pretty cross-eyed,' he said after. 'I didn't know what had happened.' A quick check showed he had held onto fourth, ahead of FDJ's Romain Gregoire, and only behind the alien trio of Pogacar, Van der Poel, and Vingegaard.
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Generally better on the longer, harder climbs, the 22-year-old stayed with the explosive accelerations of the peloton's elite riders to claim the best Grand Tour result of his young career.
Picnic-PostNL had said their hopes for Onley's GC chances depended on how he was positioned after an awkward first 10 days — on initial evidence, he could even fight for a top five finish. He finished ahead of Evenepoel, Almeida, Matteo Jorgensen and Matthias Skjelmose, all likely to be in the top 10 at minimum, and well ahead of Primoz Roglic and Carlos Rodriguez, who are 32 and 39 seconds back respectively.
Battling with the very best in the world 😍🌍
What a superb ride from @OscarOnley to finish 4th on the stage, after some great support by the guys to get him into position before the race exploded on that penultimate climb💥#KeepChallenging #TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/TphHJqYlRj
— Team Picnic PostNL (@picnicpostnl) July 8, 2025
'I don't want to get ahead of myself,' he added. 'I still know my place and, yeah, it's a different story on other climbs, but it's always nice to be with these guys.
'We're just trying to get results. Whether that's stages or overall, we'll see after three weeks but it's really just picking the days that suit me and going all in for them, then trying to relax in the days that aren't so important.'
Jacob Whitehead
In their 2005 song 'Road to Rouen', the English band Supergrass sang 'I'm isolated/I'm going nowhere fast' — a sentiment that the four-rider breakaway might have felt at several points today as they hovered around two minutes ahead of the peloton for much of the stage.
On the actual road to Rouen, the bunch was making it clear that while they were happy to have some colleagues to chase, they were not going to be granted a long leash.
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But after yesterday's stage had been discombobulated by the lack of a break, it was pleasing to see the natural order of the Tour de France restored.
It was a strong quartet too, with EF Education-EasyPost's Kasper Asgreen (a Tour stage winner in 2023), Bahrain-Victorious's Lenny Martinez, Team TotalEnergies' Thomas Gachignard and miracle man Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X Mobility — he broke his collarbone in the Tour of Belgium last month but baffled doctors by recovering in the space of just a couple of weeks.
The quartet worked well together for more than 150 kilometres but were individually picked off on the ascent of the category three Cote de Belbeuf, with Martinez the only rider to make it to the summit ahead of the peloton. He was finally caught at the foot of the next climb, absorbed by the chasers and then immediately set to work helping his team leader Santiago Buitrago. His bravery was at least rewarded with the day's combativity award.
💪 Congratulations to @lennymrtz1 who has been nominated as @century21fr most combative rider of the day!
💪 Félicitations à Lenny Martinez qui a été élu coureur le plus combatif du jour, par @century21fr !#TDF2025 | @BHRVictorious pic.twitter.com/H0YXcvjAL9
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 8, 2025
Duncan Alexander
Have you ever found £125,000 in a forest? That was the value of the 11 bikes that Cofidis had stolen from their mechanics' van on Sunday morning — all of which have now been recovered by French police.
One of the stolen bikes included a bespoke polka dot number, specially decorated for then-King of the Mountains Benjamin Thomas. The team were only able to compete because of the closeness of their base, just north of Lille, with the robbery representing a significant financial hit to one of the poorer WorldTour squads.
Five of the bikes were discovered by staff members in the woods near the team hotel, while the remaining six were tracked by police to the village of Halluin, close to the Belgian border.
'This is very good news,' said team manager Cedric Vasseur, with the bicycles now back with the team.
'I would like to warmly congratulate the Tour de France organisation and the law enforcement agencies who did everything possible to find them. Significant investigative work has been carried out and will allow us to continue the Tour de France with peace of mind.'
Jacob Whitehead
This Tour de France lacks time-trialling kilometres — this is the only traditional TT all race. The race also lost two exponents of the discipline — Filippo Ganna and Stefan Bissegger — on the opening stage. Evenepoel will be favorite but this should be a chance for all the GC contenders to show who has the best legs.