Tadej Pogacar attacked near the top of the first big mountain pass of the Tour de France and extended his lead during the twisty, high-speed descent to take back the yellow jersey on Tuesday.
Two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard did his best to limit the damage but finished 37 seconds behind on stage four. The race crossed back into France after the opening stages in Italy.
The climb to the 2,642-meter (8,668-foot) Col du Galibier met expectations as the Tour’s first decisive point.
Previous leader Richard Carapaz was dropped on the Galibier.
With his UAE Team Emirates squad setting a fast pace up the climb, only Vingegaard and a handful of other riders were able to keep up toward the top of the Galibier.
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Then Pogacar attacked with 800 meters (yards) to go and created about a 10-second advantage over Vingegaard at the summit.
There was about 20 kilometers of descending to the finish and Pogacar extended his lead over the more cautious Vingegaard, who suffered a high-speed crash in April and broke his collarbone and ribs and had a collapsed lung.
Pogacar, who also wore yellow after Stage 2, is aiming for the rare Giro d’Italia-Tour double after dominating the Italian Grand Tour in May. He’s also aiming for his third Tour title after wins in 2020 and 2021. He was runner-up to Vingegaard the last two years.
Stage 5 on Wednesday is a much less challenging 177-kilometer (110-mile) leg from Saint-Jean-De-Maurienne to Saint-Vulbas featuring two fourth-category climbs before a flat finish that could end with a sprint.
There’s another flat stage on Thursday before the race’s first individual time trial on Friday.
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