Tadej Pogacar attacked near the top of the Tour de France’s first major mountain pass and extended his lead during the twisting, high-speed descent to reclaim the yellow jersey.
Two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard did his best to limit the damage but finished 37 seconds behind on stage 4. After the first stages in Italy, the race headed back to France and finished in Valloire.
As expected, the climb to the 2,642-meter-high Col du Galibier was the first decisive point of the Tour. The previous leader, Richard Carapaz, was left behind on the Galibier.
While his team, UAE Team Emirates, set a high pace on the climb, only Vingegaard and a handful of other riders were able to keep up until the summit of the Galibier.
Then Pogacar attacked 800 m from the finish and gained a lead of about 10 seconds over Vingegaard at the summit.
On the 20-kilometer descent to the finish, Pogacar extended his lead over the more cautious Vingegaard, who suffered a broken collarbone and ribs and a collapsed lung in a high-speed crash in April.
Pogacar, who also wore yellow after stage two, is aiming for a rare Giro d’Italia-Tour double after dominating the Italian Grand Tour in May. He is also seeking his third Tour title after victories in 2020 and 2021. He finished second to Vingegaard in each of the last two years.
Wednesday’s fifth stage is a less demanding 177km stage from Saint-Jean-De-Maurienne to Saint-Vulbas, which includes two fourth-category climbs before a flat finish that could end in a sprint.
There will be another flat stage on Thursday before the first individual time trial of the race on Friday.