Tour de France 2025 Stage 4

July 8, 2025 The 174KM fourth stage from one cathedral city of Amiens to another in Rouen. The route goes South West in almost a straight line for over 100KM from Amiens down to Les Andelys on the banks of the Seine. The riders turn North and East to find the climbs which make up the last 50KM of racing. The first of which is the Côte Jacques Anquetil, 3.6KM at 3.5%. From the top, there is 15KM of rolling roads, generally downhill, to Saint-Adrien for the intermediate sprint. From there, the climbs come thick all the way to the finish. The Côte de Belbeuf is 1.3KM at over 9% and comes at 27KM from the line. Next is the Côte de Bonsecours is 900M at 7% then the 1.8KM, 4.8% Côte de la Grand'Mare. The final climb is the Rampe Saint-Hilaire which 800M at over 9% and comes just 5KM from the finish. The sprinters are unlikely to stick with the leaders so we should see a small group or a brave solo rider coming to the finish. Conditions were perfect for racing at the start with a cloudless sky. Everyone expected a fight for the break but it's not what we got. After struggling for a few days, Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious attacked from the gun and was followed by Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X Mobility and the bunch just sat across the road. Thomas Gachignard of TotalEnergies squeezed through the gaps and bridged up to make three at the front. The break got to 90 seconds ahead when Kasper Asgreen of EF-Education EasyPost attacked from the bunch in a bid to go across. Alpecin-Deceuninck started riding when the gap got to 2 minutes. Asgreen made it up to the break with 154.5KM to go with the gap still at 2 minutes back to the peloton. The gap remained remarkably consistent at 2 minutes as the break road passed many châteaux and through the wheat and corn fields of Normandy. More teams came to the front with 73KM to go with the turn in Les Andelys fast approaching. Through Les Andelys and out to the North, the break's advantage had been trimmed down to 1 minute 15 seconds. They started to visibly ride harder to preserve their gap before the climbs began. The break started the first climb of the Côte Jacques Anquetil at 49.5KM to go with a gap of 1 minute 38 seconds. Alpecin-Deceuninck and Tudor Pro Cycling led on to the climb and were pushing quite hard. Martinez made a hard attack with 2KM to climb and split the break up but Abrahamsen clung on. Martinez eased up and the others were able to come back. Near the top, Asgreen hit out first with just over 200M to climb and held off Martinez to take the single point available. Even with the increased pace of the break, the bunch had closed in to 1 minute 15 seconds when they reached the summit of the Côte Jacques Anquetil. The peloton stormed downhill towards Saint-Adrien and cut the lead in half. Abrahamsen took the intermediate sprint from the break with Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek taking the maximum remaining points in the sprint from the peloton, ahead of Biniam Girmay of Intermarché-Wanty. Asgreen led on to the Côte de Belbeuf but the peloton were within touching distance. Martinez attacked from the bottom and managed to stay away to take maximum points at the top. UAE-XRG took control in the bunch and started to ride hard over the top but other teams pushed forward to stay as close to the front. Martinez was caught on the downhill run into the Côte de Bonsecours with 21KM to go. There were no attacks on the Côte de Bonsecours but Alpecin-Deceuninck set a hard pace and started to shell riders off the back. UAE-XRG put the team on the front and drilled it down the descent which split the group to around 80 riders by the start of the Côte de la Grand'Mare with just under 14KM to go. Once again it was UAE-XRG that took over on the climb and managed to cut the group even further, down to 60 riders. Visma-Lease a Bike came up with a number of riders to take the lead on the descent and put the race in single file with just one climb remaining. Victor Campenaerts of Visma-Lease a Bike shredded the bunch on the descent, through the twists and turns on the way to the Rampe Saint-Hilaire. Once on the Rampe Saint-Hilaire, UAE-XRG lit up and 300M from the top, Tadej Pogačar attacked. Right away, everyone was in dropped except for Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike. Pogačar continued his effort and with 100M to go, Vingegaard had to sit down and lost 5 meters. He was able to claw his way back on as Pogačar crested with 5KM remaining. Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quickstep led a group of five about 10 seconds back along with race leader Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Matteo Jorgenson of Visma-Lease a Bike, João Almeida of UAE-XRG, and Oscar Onley of Picnic-PostNL. The two groups came together with 4KM to go and Almeida went to the front to keep a lid on any attacking. Jorgenson took a flyer under 1KM to go but Almeida dragged him back as road tipped up in the last 700M. Almeida had enough in the tank to lead the group through the final corner at 250M but it was van der Poel who started the sprint first. Pogačar was on his wheel and was able to come level with 50M to go. Van der Poel seemed to get a second wind but tied up and could not hold off the charging Pogačar who took the 100th victory of his career. Van der Poel took second place with Vingegaard showing good form in taking third place. Pogačar grabbed 10 bonus seconds and van der Poel got 6 seconds which put them level on time. Van der Poel would keep the Yellow Jersey on countback however going into the long ITT tomorrow.