TOUR DE FRANCE 2024 | STAGE 4 | PINEROLO > VALLOIRE
Stage 4 of the Tour de France was won in style by Tadej Pogačar in Valloire, with the UAE Team Emirates rider attacking on the Galibier climb before descending to the finish line to reclaim the Yellow Jersey. After controlling the evolution of the breakaway on the climbs to the Italian resort of Sestriere, then the Col de Montgenevre, the UAE riders put their leader into position on the Col du Galibier. It was 800 metres from the summit that Pogačar struck a big blow to his rivals. The Slovenian then increased his advantage on the descent to Valloire to claim the 12th stage victory of his career on the Tour, also reclaiming the Yellow Jersey. He will start the fifth stage 45” ahead of Remco Evenepoel and 50” ahead of Jonas Vingegaard.
The intermediate sprint for Pedersen
There were 174 riders at the start of Stage 4 in Pinerolo after the withdrawal of Casper Pedersen (Soudal-Quick Step), who crashed towards the end of Stage 3 near Turin suffering a collarbone fracture, forcing him to leave the Tour. After the peloton left Pinerolo for this short, tough (139.6 km) stage in the mountains, the positioning of the intermediate sprint at km 18.6 inspired Mads Pedersen, who immediately tried to launch a breakaway, though the attack would not succeed. So it was from within the bunch that the Dane accelerated to the line to take the maximum 20 points in the Castel Del Bosco intermediate sprint, in the fight for the green jersey.
The first big climb
At km 30, on the asecent to Sestriere – with 20km of the climb remaining – there were 17 riders who broke clear, with Chris Juul-Jensen (Jayco-AlUla), Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-AG2R), David Gaudu, Romain Grégoire, Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ ), Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Oier Lazkano (Movistar), Raul Garcia, Cristian Rodriguez (Arkes-B&B), Kobe Goosens (Intermarche-Wanty), Warren Barguil (dsm-Firmenich), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Odd Christian Eiking, Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X), Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) and Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) all in the group.
Williams shows his prowess
It was 2024 Flèche Wallonne winner Williams who topped the Sestriere climb (Cat 2, km 50.4) first and by the time the breakaway riders reached the summit of the second categorised climb – Col de Montgenevre (Cat 2, km 71,1) – their gap over the peloton was 2’10”. Again it was Williams who reached the top of the climb first, earning himself 10 points for the Mountain classification from those first two peaks of the day. On the descent from Montgenevre, Nils Politt set a very fast pace for Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates causing several splits in the peloton, which were nullified when the bunch passed through Briançon (km 82.1), with Richard Carapaz accelerating to 86.6 km/h in the Yellow Jersey to chase his way back to the GC group. The breakaway’s advantage increased to 2’30” as the escapees gained some momentum in the valley to the foot of the Galibier.
The breakaway disintegrates on the Galibier
The breakaway group fell apart on the Galibier with Chris Juul-Jensen (Jayco-AlUla), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X) and Oier Lazkano (Movistar Team), the last four to stay at the front, not opting to assist each other. Only 30 riders remained in the main group of a reduced peloton when it caught and overtook Lazkano with 26 km to go, driven by the UAE Team Emirates riders. The elimination game in the main group saw the Yellow Jersey Carapaz distanced at 6 km from the summit and he would eventually finish 5’28” down on the GC. There were only eight riders at the front at 3 km from the top of the climb: Almeida, Ayuso, Pogačar, Vingegaard, Car.Rodriguez, Roglic, Evenepoel and Landa. Pogačar then produced a sublime attack 800 metres from summit of the Col du Galibier, with Vingegaard hanging onto his wheel for around a 100 metres, but the gap grew with the UAE leader taking the Henri-Desgrange souvenir by 10” ahead of his rival. On the descent and in the final kilometres to Valloire Pogačar opened up a clear gap to win by 35” from Evenepoel, Ayuso and Roglic, with Vingegaard in fifth, two further seconds behind.
Oier Lazkano (Movistar Team): “To Win The Lottery, You Have To Buy A Ticket”
“I didn’t feel good at all in the first stage, but I’ve managed to turn my body around and regain a good feeling these days. It has not been an easy day for the breakaway, because the teams in the general classification wanted to make the race tough so we never got more than two or three minutes away, which was a shame. Once I was there in the breakaway, I wanted to try until the end. I managed to get on the podium in my first Tour, and that is something very nice. I have fulfilled every cyclist’s dream. What do I expect from the rest of the Tour? Suffering and learning! The goal is not to get on the podium for Combativity, but to win a stage to put my team and its sponsors in a good place. I will keep looking for the breakaways because, to win the lottery, you have to buy a ticket. Also, my teammates like Fernando Gaviria have shown good legs and they have stages ahead that are good for their qualities, so we will support them.”
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step): “I Am On The Right Path”
“Tadej Pogačar has once again shown his qualities. We know that when he attacks he is very explosive. I tried to go but I couldn’t follow him. I was able to get to the summit not too far from Vingegaard, so it wasn’t too bad. Then I launched into the descent and I took a little too much risk, I almost paid for it. I slipped two or three times on slightly wet sections, so I lost a little confidence. The others caught up with me and we were able to reach the finish with Vingegaard. Finally I was able to sprint to take second place. I knew I had to be ready for this stage. I may not be 100% but it’s definitely a good start. I told myself that I was aiming for a Top 5, so finishing second in a mountain stage of the Tour and placing second overall means that I am on the right path. As for the final victory, the race is still long, Tadej may have an off day, and in any case I prefer to concentrate on what I am capable of doing with my team. We’re going to fight until Nice and in any case, everything is going well and I’m having fun.”
Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility): “Enough Points To Keep The Jersey For One More Day”
“It was a hard start. I tried to go with a breakaway in the beginning. Then we had one guy in the breakaway before the sprint. Then they were caught so I tried to get some points there for the sprint and I was around fifth so I got enough points to keep the jersey for one more day. After that I just took it easy to the finish line. Maybe we will see about the breakaway tomorrow, I think I will help Alexander Kristoff for the sprints tomorrow. Hopefully I have enough points from yesterday too to keep the mountain jersey because I think this is not easy to take after tomorrow.”
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): “I Wanted To Hit Hard Today”
“I’m super happy. This was more or less the plan, and we executed it pretty well. It was like a dream stage, and finishing it off solo was very special. I wanted to hit hard today, as I was confident I could win and put some seconds on my rivals. I know this stage pretty well. I’ve trained a lot here and it felt like a home stage, passing through Sestriere and Montgenevre. There was a lot of headwind in the Galibier climb, so the pace didn’t feel that hard when following wheels. Still, my team did a super good job. I didn’t want to attack too early because of the wind, so I saved my legs until that attack with 800 meters to go on which I pushed as hard as possible in order to make such big differences as possible. I knew the downhill, and that helped a lot, but it was a bit scary and surprising to see that the first few corners were wet. The gaps I created are good news for me. I can be happy with the position and the shape I am in right now. Yet there are three demanding weeks ahead of us, and as for this week in particular there is an ITT that can create some gaps.”
TOUR DE FRANCE 2024 | STAGE 4 | PINEROLO > VALLOIRE | DAILY STATS
5: POGAČAR’S STREAK CONTINUES
Tadej Pogačar is up to 12 Tour stage wins, matching the likes of Louis Trousselier, Jean Aerts, Gino Bartali or Peter Sagan with the 15th highest tally in the history of the race. The Slovenian has now won stages in his first five Tours de France. Here are the riders with stage wins in (at least) their first five Tours:
- 9 André Leducq
- 8 Bernard Hinault
- 7 Walter Godefroot
- 6 Nicolas Frantz, André Greipel, Eddy Merckx
- 5 Gino Bartali, Fiorenzo Magni, Tadej Pogačar
24: THE YOUTH RISES
With an average of 24 years and 7 days, Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel and Juan Ayuso make for the youngest top-3 of a Tour de France mountain stage this century. The previous record was set at Peyragudes two years ago: Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, Brandon McNulty combined for an average age of 24 years and 217 days.
Juan Ayuso also becomes the youngest Spaniard to finish in the top-3 of a Tour stage, beating Miguel Indurain (21 years, 9 months and 16 days vs 21 years, 11 months and 25 days).
50’47”: POGAČAR’S SPEEDS ON THE GALIBIER
50’47”: Pogačar smashes the Galibier, up and down With UAE Team Emirates setting a blazing pace until he pounced over the top, Tadej Pogačar tamed the ascent to the Col du Galibier with an average of 27.1 km/h, which represents a time of 50’47’’, faster than the Strava KOM set by Thibaut Pinot during the Tour 2019 (52’46’’). With his speeds tracked by NTT Data, the Slovenian star also impressed on the way down, to gain 30’’ on Jonas Vingegaard from the summit to the finish. Pogačar averaged 63.7 km/h on the downhill, with a top speed of 89.2 km/h. Vingegaard did 62.0km/h and 84.6km/h.
7: RACKING UP GT STAGE WINS
Tadej Pogačar has now won 7 stages between the Giro and the Tour this year. Since WWII, excluding the sprinters, these are the best values among riders who won in both races:
- Eddy Merckx, 11 in 1970 / 10 in 1969, 1972, 1974
- Fausto Coppi, 8 in 1952
- Bernard Hinault, 8 in 1982
106: PIDCOCK SPEEDS UP ON THE WAY DOWN
As the race got to Briançon and the ascent of the Galibier, Tom Pidcock reminded everyone how fast he can be on downhills as he hit the top speed recorded by the NTT Data trackers so far in the Tour de France 2024: 106.6 km/h, at km 84.
In 2022, the Brit won stage 12 of the Tour, starting from Briançon, and he had an impressive downhill from the Galibier to join the attackers before he went solo up L’Alpe d’Huez.
2: POGAČAR JOINS ROGLIC
Created in 1947 to honour the first director of the Tour de France, the Souvenir Henri Desgrange has had different locations in the Tour de France but the Col du Galibier is where it has been most often awarded – 30 times after today’s stage. And that’s where Primoz Roglic (in 2017) and Tadej Pogačar (today) became the two Slovenian winners of the Souvenir.
23: POGAČAR MATCHES BARTALI
After Richard Carapaz’s short reign as the first Ecuadorian rider to lead the Tour, Tadej Pogačar collects his 23rd Maillot Jaune. He thus matches Gino Bartali’s record. And now he eyes Jonas Vingegaard’s record: 27 Maillots Jaunes.
30: IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT POGAČAR
UAE Team Emirates, as a continuation of Lampre, are now up to 30 Maillot Jaune:
- 23 for Tadej Pogačar (2020, 2021, 2022, 2024)
- 4 for Adam Yates (2023)
- 2 for Rubens Bertogliati (2002)
