The first full day of racing on French soil delivered a tactical re-shuffle that upended both the green and yellow jersey hierarchies on Stage 4. Over 181.9 kilometres of undulating heat from Carcassonne to Foix, a massive 34-man breakaway turned a standard transition stage into a definitive 13-minute execution. Mads Pedersen spearheaded a ruthless Lidl-Trek 1-2 finish to secure the green jersey, surviving an attritional climbing assault on the Category 2 Col de Montségur thanks to a multi-man lead-out train from teammates Mathias Vacek and Quinn Simmons. Pedersen easily answered a long-range flyer from Kévin Vauquelin inside the final 350 meters, unleashing a monstrous finishing kick to storm across the line.
While Lidl-Trek dominated the flat run-in to lock down the stage and put Vacek into the white jersey, Torstein Træen quietly rode his way into cycling folklore further up the road. Entering the day as the best-placed rider in the breakaway, the Uno-X Mobility rider watched the gap to the main field balloon past seven minutes while UAE Team Emirates-XRG eased off the pace. The peloton eventually crossed the line a staggering 13 minutes back, meaning Tadej Pogačar has surrendered the Maillot Jaune on the very first day he wore it for the third consecutive year. Træen inherits the jersey to become only the third Norwegian in history to lead the Tour de France, leaving the pre-race favorites to rethink their defensive strategies before tomorrow’s transition to Pau.
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
