Pedersen wins Tour de France stage 4 as Traeen takes yellow jersey

Extreme heat decided the Tour’s fourth stage as much as speed did, with Mads Pedersen winning into Foix after 182km from Carcassonne in temperatures that climbed above 40C. Torstein Traeen moved into the yellow jersey from Tadej Pogacar after both riders survived the furnace, but Pogacar surrendered the race lead as the race turned on who could endure the conditions, not only who could attack.

Pedersen, the 2019 world road race champion, finished first from a breakaway and claimed his third career Tour de France stage victory. Lidl-Trek controlled the finale, sending Quinn Simmons across the line in second and Spain’s Raúl García Pierna in third. The move that settled the stage grew out of a large escape, with more than 30 riders involved, and Pedersen’s winning bid came after more than 150 kilometres off the front.

The heat changed the shape of the stage long before the finishing straight. Riders faced a relentless 182km route across southern France, and the tempo in the breakaway became a test of recovery as much as positioning. Pedersen’s ability to finish after so long in front under such conditions underlined how the day rewarded resistance and timing in equal measure.

Traeen’s move into yellow gave Norway another place in Tour history. He became only the third Norwegian rider to wear the race leader’s jersey, following Thor Hushovd and Alexander Kristoff. For UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Pogacar’s loss of the jersey marked a rare shift in a race often dictated by his control, but the heat opened a different contest and allowed the yellow jersey to change hands.

Stage 5 on Wednesday was set to be mostly flat and suited to sprinters, a sharp contrast to the punishing run from Carcassonne to Foix. After a stage where temperatures above 40C and a 150-kilometre escape mattered as much as raw finishing speed, the Tour moved on with the general classification reshaped by weather as well as racing.