Tour de France 2024 Stage 4

July 2, 2024 The Tour says goodbye to Italy as the route takes the riders out of Pinerolo and into France through the Alps. The stage contains three main climbs, highlighted by the Galibier and the descent into Valloire to the finish. Those looking for the Green Jersey were the main animators early in the stage since the intermediate sprint point came after just 20KM. Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek tried to get away but it all came back together. Lidl-Trek set up their lead out and Pedersen was able to win the sprint and top points just before the road started to go up. A group of 17 riders got away with 108KM to go. Over the top of Sestriere, Stephen Williams of Israel-Premier Tech took top points with Valentin Madouas of Groupama-FDJ in second place as the peloton were 2 minutes back down the road. Over the top of the Col de Montgenèvre with 65KM to go, Williams took the sprint for mountains points ahead of Warren Barguil of DSM-Firmenich and Madouas. Their lead remained constant at 2 minutes with just the Lautaret and the turn up the Galibier to go. UAE put the pressure on with 16KM to climb, bringing the gap down to just 1 minute to the break. The race turned onto the Galibier with 8KM to climb as the peloton was within 40 seconds of last breakaway riders. Although UAE were setting a hard pace, the head wind was strong and 50 riders were still in the bunch. Oier Lazkano of Movistar was the last rider to be caught with 7KM to climb. By 4KM to the top of the Galibier, UAE had shredded the peloton. They had 4 riders in the front group of 12. With 850M to climb, Tadej Pogačar of UAE attacked, Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike was on it right away but no one else could respond. 400M later, Vingegaard couldn't accelerate out of a tight hairpin and a gap opened. Pogačar took the Souvenir Henry Desgrange over the top of the Galibier along with an 8 second time bonus and had an additional 6 seconds back to Vingegaard. Pogačar widened his advantage on the descent with 35 seconds in hand and 4KM to go on a chase group that formed of Vingegaard, Juan Ayuso of UAE, Carlos Rodríguez of Ineos, Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quickstep, and Primož Roglič of RedBull-Bora Hansgrohe. Pogačar crossed the line, pounding his chest in victory for his twelfth Tour de France stage win. Evenepoel was next with Ayuso taking the last of the bonus seconds in third. The Evenepoel group came in 35 seconds back, putting Pogačar back in Yellow by 45 seconds over Evenepoel and 50 seconds to Vingegaard.