July 7, 2026
Firmly back on home soil, the fourth stage of the Tour de France begins in Carcassonne with 182 km between the medieval fortified city and Foix. As with yesterday's stage, today is another 50/50 day for the break. While not as mountainous as yesterday, there are still 2,800 meters of elevation to climb and, given the locations of the climbs, a reduced bunch sprint seems unlikely. The first 30 km are easy enough as the riders will head South before turning West into the hills of the Corbières Massif. The intermediate sprint comes halfway through the stage in Quillan at the base of the hardest climb of the day, the 11 km, 5.5% Col de Coudons. There is a 20 km plateau followed by a descent into Bélesta along the Hers-Vif river in the Ariège. The final climb of the day is the Col de Montségur, a 7 km ascent at 6%. The top comes 35 km from the finish with only gently rolling hills to contend with on the run in to Foix. If this were in the third week, it would be a guaranteed day for the break but there might be a few hearty sprinters who would be interested in keeping the race close for a reduced sprint.
Race Summary
Heat continued to be a factor with temperatures forecasted for 33C (92F) again at the finish. Once the flag dropped through KM0, big, powerful riders wasted no time in attacking. A group of around 15 quality riders split off early but there were plenty of others desperate to be involved. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe and Jayco AlUla were the teams most eager to launch a rider across but they ended up towing a massive group up to make around 35 riders in the front with 169 km remaining. The bunch shut down for good 7 km later for a natural break and the front split was allowed to go forward.
In the end, 34 riders made the move. Many of the main contenders for the Green jersey were present including Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek, Biniam Girmay of NSN Cycling, Michael Matthews of Jayco AlUla, and Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Premier Tech but also many others who wouldn't want to bring these fast guys to the finish. UAE-XRG were content with the move and the break arrived at the base of the day's first categorized climb of the Col de Bedos with a 3 minute 40 second lead.
The race settled into a holding pattern with Nils Politt of UAE-XRG controlling the break single handedly. With 117 km to go at the top of the Col de Paradis, Georg Steinhauser of EF-Education EasyPost jumped out of the break to go for the KOM points in defense of his teammate Alex Baudin who wore the Polka Dot jersey who was absent from the break. Alex Molenaar of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA went with him and nipped passed the German on the line to take 2 points, moving him into third in the classification.
The kilometers ticked by and the gap continuously went up. 1 km from the intermediate sprint in Quillan with 89 km remaining, the gap was up to 4 minutes 25 seconds with Pedersen, Girmay, Matthews, and Philipsen all moving closer to the front of the group to position for the sprint. Lidl-Trek jumped just 300 meters from the line but it was Girmay who took maximum points and demonstrated again that he will be a force in this competition. Philipsen crossed the line second with Pedersen in third. The group immediately started the Col de Coudons and turned the page to the next phase of the race.
In the first third of the climb, Jan Tratnik of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe set a pace that only Mathias Vacek of Lidl-Trek was willing to follow. By the time Tratnik led Vacek over the top, they had built nearly 1 minute on the rest of the break. When the others came over the top, Pedersen attacked to split up the group. He did not manage to get away but the effort did kick off a series of attacks. Along the the plateau with 71 km to go, another factor besides a stage win was thrown into the mix. UAE-XRG had more or less shut down the chase and the gap had gone out to 7 minutes 20 seconds. The best placed rider up front was Torstein Træen of Uno-X Mobility who started the day at 5 minutes 6 seconds and was the virtual Maillot Jaune but also in the group was Sean Quinn of EF-Education EasyPost just a further 28 seconds down.
Vacek and Tratnik were joined by Alex Kirsch of Cofidis with 67 km to go after the Luxembourger bridged 25 seconds on his own from the chase group. EF-Education EasyPost put Steinhauser on the front of the chase and, with help from Movistar and a few others, they had the three leaders at just 10 seconds by the base of the Col de Montségur. Tratnik tried to hold off the chase but EF-Education EasyPost were intent on driving the group as far forward as possible to give Quinn a chance at yellow. The bunch had drifted to 8 minutes and looked inevitable that either Quinn or Træen would own the race lead by the end of the day.
Michael Valgren took over from Steinhauser and ramped up the speed in the first few kilometers of the climb. Quinn was in third wheel with Træen sitting tight until 3 km from the top when Valgren pulled off and Quinn went on the attack. Around ten riders made the selection including Pedersen and his teammate Quinn Simmons. Simmons took on the pace making to make sure it was too hard to attack but not so hard that Pedersen would be dropped. Both Pablo Castrillo and Raúl García Pierna of Movistar tried their hand at attacking but Simmons was always there to go to the front and set a false pace.
1 km from the top, the group was whittled down to 10 riders. Those riders were García Pierna, Castrillo, Simmons, Pedersen, Vacek, Træen, Quinn, Marco Frigo of NSN Cycling, Ramses Debruyne of Alpecin-Premier Tech, and Kévin Vauquelin of Netcompany-Ineos who was hanging on by his fingernails. The group split in half about 500 meters from the top and it was Frigo who took the KOM points with 35 km to go. With Frigo was García Pierna, Castrillo, Træen, and Debruyne with the other five less than 10 seconds behind.
The two groups rejoined on the descent and even though they had over 10 minutes on the peloton, they had to keep on the gas because a group of six were 50 seconds behind which contained Matthews. The group rolled turns nicely until 14 km to go when Castrillo put in a dig. Pedersen was quick to cover and Simmons went to the front to restore order in the group. The Matthews group was out to 90 seconds at this point and out of the game and the peloton was out to 12 minutes. Castrillo and García Pierna put in a number of half attacks that never really got anywhere and were easily covered by the Lidl-Trek trio. Frigo tried to escape with 3.5 km to go and Castrillo attacked from the front a few more times but the group was still together under the red kite at 1 km to go. Vacek led through the final few hundred meters until the last corner at 350 meters with Pedersen, García Pierna, Quinn, and Simmons sitting behind in that order. Vauquelin dive bombed the corner and came through first but his exit was all wrong. Pedersen's line was perfect on the inside and when he opened his sprint, it was as if the others didn't know the finish line was just ahead. The gap was five bike lengths in no time and Pedersen was able to soft pedal and look behind in the last 50 meters to win comfortably in what was a perfect display of team work for the German squad. Simmons made it a 1-2 for Lidl-Trek by out-sprinting García Pierna for second, pushing the Movistar man to third place.
A stop watch was not necessary to know that Træen had taken over the Yellow jersey because the gaps were massive. The peloton came in almost 13 minutes down, giving the Norwegian and his Uno-X Mobility team their first ever Maillot Jaune. Quinn now sits second in GC at 28 seconds, Vacek is at 3 minutes 50 seconds, and Tadej Pogačar slid to fourth at 7 minutes 53 seconds. Træen finished ninth in GC in last year's Vuelta so it may take some time for the GC favorites to claw back the time.