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 Monday night.
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.”
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.
