Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar reclaimed the yellow jersey from ’s Richard Carapaz in dominant fashion on Tuesday, winning Stage 4 of the 2024 and establishing himself as the undeniable early favorite to win the . The first mountainous stage of the competition, Stage 4 included an elevation gain of over 11,000 feet through the Alps as cyclists rode 86.7 miles from Pinerolo, , to Valloire, France.
Pogačar’s Team UAE Emirates seized control of the breakaway group as it approached the final summit, and approximately 800 meters from the top, Pogačar made his move. Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard made a valiant effort to go with Pogačar but ultimately came up 8 seconds short at the summit of the Col du Galibier. On the final descent before the finish line, Pogačar sealed his victory as he continued to gain ground on Vingegaard, who was eventually caught by Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) in the final meters of the race.
After his win, Pogačar said that he executed his race plan well. “This was more or less the plan,” . “It was like a dream stage and I finished it off solo, it's incredible .
..I wanted to hit hard today.
” With two Tour de France general classification titles in 2020 and 2021 already under his belt, this victory marked Pogačar’s 12th career Tour de France stage win. If Tuesday can serve as any indication of how will play out, Pogačar seems poised to reclai.