Tour de France: Van der Poel edges out Pogacar to win second stage in hilltop finale
Van der Poel also won stage two on the 2021 Tour de France and then dug deep to retain the yellow jersey for six gruelling days.
"Winning again four years after the last time, that's just great. In recent years I tried to get here on top form but never quite did," said Van der Poel, adding that racing the recent Criterium du Dauphine had done the trick. "I also watched a video of the final kilometre three times this morning and knew exactly how to take it."
The Dutch rider is the grandson of French cycling legend Raymond Poulidor, who came second in the Tour de France seven times, but never won and also never got to wear the yellow jersey.
Mathieu van der Poel said he had watched a video of the final kilometre three times in the morning. Source: AAP / EPA / Christophe Petit Tesson "It was more emotional last time because he [Poulidor] had just died. I had so wanted to win it while he was still alive," said Van der Poel. Poulidor's grandson had punched the ground and screamed wildly on realising he had taken the jersey on his previous Tour de France stage win at the Mur de Bretagne.
There were no such scenes this time.
"I had a feeling I could win the stage today, but taking the yellow jersey is a nice bonus," said Van der Poel, normally better suited to the ultra-long Monument races, of which he won Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix this season. His teammate Philipsen may have lost the yellow jersey, but he will set off Monday wearing the green one assigned to the peloton's best sprinter. Defending champion Pogacar was also invited onto the podium due to the points he won atop the four hills of the day's stage that saw him earn the right to don the polka-dot king of the mountains tunic.
Team UAE's Slovenian rider is second in the overall standings, with Visma's Vingegaard just two seconds behind him in third.
The race got going as Pogacar and Vingegaard tested each other over the final 20km with three short, sharp climbs on narrow roads.
That struggle blew up a peloton that had been largely sedate until then.
Heavy rain, stolen bicycles Heavy rain left giant puddles at the tiny start town of Lauwin Planque as the 182 riders set off on the 209km run towards the coastal port. Regional police estimated that one million spectators had lined the roadsides on the opening day of action, but the rain dissuaded that kind of turnout on Sunday. French team Cofidis had to scramble Sunday morning as they had 11 bikes stolen from a team truck during the night. Monday's third stage is a 178km flat run to Dunkirk, where a mass bunch sprint is expected unless the peloton gets splintered by winds as it did on stage one. The first section of the Tour is raced through the north and west of France. The volcanic landscape of the Puy de Dome present 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. 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 .
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"To win at the Tour is incredible, to do it in this jersey even more so and to win 100 victories is amazing. "Tomorrow is the real test. Already to win a stage in this jersey for me it's enough. Of course we aim for yellow and we will see." Evenepoel conceded another three seconds to Pogacar and Vingegaard, leaving him 58 seconds off yellow, while Primoz Roglic lost 32 seconds to fall one minute 27 seconds down. Tadej Pogacar has claimed the 100th victory of his professional career to move level on time with Mathieu van der Poel in the yellow jersey on a thrilling stage four of the Tour de France in Rouen. In the hometown of the Tour's first five-time winner Jacques Anquetil, Pogacar took a stride to what he hopes will be his fourth title with a show of strength on another classics-style stage, beating Van der Poel and his great rival Jonas Vingegaard in an uphill sprint. It was Pogacar's 18th career Tour stage win and one that put him on the same time as Van der Poel - who retains yellow on countback - with Vingegaard eight seconds back going into Wednesday's time trial. Jack Haig (Bahrain-Victorious) was the highest placed Australian, finishing 39 seconds behind in 28th while Ben O'Connor (Jayco AlUla), still seeming troubled by Monday's crash, lost another 1:49. He is now 2:36 adrift on GC with Haig six places ahead in 23rd, 2:05 behind the leaders. The 174 km route from Amiens, had five categorised climbs, all in the last 50 km. Lenny Martinez, the last survivor of a four-man breakaway, was collected with around 20 km left as Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad and Vingegaard's Visma-Lease A Bike team came to the fore, quickly making a major reduction in the peloton as few could keep with the pace. Pogacar attacked on the steepest section of the last categorised climb, doing 24kph with gradients hitting 15 per cent on the Rampe Saint-Hilaire. He briefly distanced Vingegaard, who was the only man who could follow, and took the points, before the Dane got back onto his wheel. Remco Evenepoel dragged a handful of riders back across to the leading pair on the descent into Rouen, Van der Poel among them, but there would be no beating the world champion to victory. "I think today I got very, very close to the limit," Pogacar said. "I tried with an attack on the last climb and then Jonas followed me and everything came together. "To win at the Tour is incredible, to do it in this jersey even more so and to win 100 victories is amazing. "Tomorrow is the real test. Already to win a stage in this jersey for me it's enough. Of course we aim for yellow and we will see." Evenepoel conceded another three seconds to Pogacar and Vingegaard, leaving him 58 seconds off yellow, while Primoz Roglic lost 32 seconds to fall one minute 27 seconds down. Tadej Pogacar has claimed the 100th victory of his professional career to move level on time with Mathieu van der Poel in the yellow jersey on a thrilling stage four of the Tour de France in Rouen. In the hometown of the Tour's first five-time winner Jacques Anquetil, Pogacar took a stride to what he hopes will be his fourth title with a show of strength on another classics-style stage, beating Van der Poel and his great rival Jonas Vingegaard in an uphill sprint. It was Pogacar's 18th career Tour stage win and one that put him on the same time as Van der Poel - who retains yellow on countback - with Vingegaard eight seconds back going into Wednesday's time trial. Jack Haig (Bahrain-Victorious) was the highest placed Australian, finishing 39 seconds behind in 28th while Ben O'Connor (Jayco AlUla), still seeming troubled by Monday's crash, lost another 1:49. He is now 2:36 adrift on GC with Haig six places ahead in 23rd, 2:05 behind the leaders. The 174 km route from Amiens, had five categorised climbs, all in the last 50 km. Lenny Martinez, the last survivor of a four-man breakaway, was collected with around 20 km left as Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad and Vingegaard's Visma-Lease A Bike team came to the fore, quickly making a major reduction in the peloton as few could keep with the pace. Pogacar attacked on the steepest section of the last categorised climb, doing 24kph with gradients hitting 15 per cent on the Rampe Saint-Hilaire. He briefly distanced Vingegaard, who was the only man who could follow, and took the points, before the Dane got back onto his wheel. Remco Evenepoel dragged a handful of riders back across to the leading pair on the descent into Rouen, Van der Poel among them, but there would be no beating the world champion to victory. "I think today I got very, very close to the limit," Pogacar said. "I tried with an attack on the last climb and then Jonas followed me and everything came together. "To win at the Tour is incredible, to do it in this jersey even more so and to win 100 victories is amazing. "Tomorrow is the real test. Already to win a stage in this jersey for me it's enough. Of course we aim for yellow and we will see." Evenepoel conceded another three seconds to Pogacar and Vingegaard, leaving him 58 seconds off yellow, while Primoz Roglic lost 32 seconds to fall one minute 27 seconds down.
