Torstein Traeen stared into space in disbelief as he cooled down with his ice vest. The Norwegian professional cyclist braved the scorching heat in the south of France and snatched the yellow leader’s jersey from star rider Tadej Pogacar in the Tour de France.
“I’m just grateful today,” he said. During the race, he hadn’t given much thought to the possibility of success. “The main thing is to keep cool,” he added. He was probably referring to both his mental state and the heat. Generally speaking, he copes well with high temperatures.
Politt: “Anything is still possible”
The Slovenian defending champion Pogacar and his team had not made any great effort prior to that to stop the 30-year-old Scandinavian and his breakaway group, which had pulled away. After all, the world’s biggest cycling race still has nearly three weeks to go – so there is plenty of time for the world’s best cyclist to reclaim the lead.
Pogacar’s team-mate Nils Politt reacted to the situation with a relaxed attitude. “Nah, it’s all fine,” said the Cologne native. “It’s all still doable.”
Pedersen wins the stage
For Traeen, this is the greatest achievement of his career. The professional, who was part of his Norwegian Uno-X team’s Tour debut three years ago, is only the third Norwegian ever to wear the Yellow Jersey. The man, who successfully beat testicular cancer, wore the red leader’s jersey on four stages of last year’s Vuelta a España.
Traeen leads the overall standings by 28 seconds ahead of the American Quinn Simmons and 3 minutes 50 seconds ahead of the Czech Mathias Vacek. Pogacar is now in fourth place, 7 minutes 53 seconds behind. The young German star Florian Lipowitz has slipped out of the top ten in the general classification. He is now eleventh, 8 minutes and 46 seconds behind Traeen.
Mads Pedersen won the stage convincingly in a sprint from the breakaway group. The former Danish world champion triumphed after the 181.9-kilometre stage between Carcassonne and Foix, celebrating his third stage victory in the Tour. Pedersen’s team-mate Simmons finished second, whilst Spain’s Raul Garcia took third place. No German rider made it into the top ten.
Heat dominates the fourth stage
Temperatures soared to as high as 40 degrees in the south of France. Ice packs on the back of the neck and a desperate thirst were the order of the day amongst the riders.
The UCI, the world cycling federation, decided, as a one-off, that whole feed bags may also be handed out in the zones designated solely for water bottles, in order to make it easier to hand out several bottles to each rider at the same time.
The day before, superstar Pogacar had commented on the conditions. “Riding in this heat is dangerous if you don’t keep your body temperature down,” said the 27-year-old, who himself collected water bottles from the support car during the stage.
What’s more, it’s a “logistical nightmare”. “As a team, we really do our best to bring the riders as much water and ice as possible. Sometimes, when the valley is long – 10 to 15 kilometres – three lads cycle back to the car to fetch water bottles and ice so that we can keep cooling down,” he said.
Vingegaard regrets losing the yellow jersey
His long-standing rival, Vingegaard, expressed his regret at losing the overall lead the previous day. The Dane said it was a shame not to be wearing the yellow jersey any longer. “We had actually expected to be a little behind at this stage, so this is a good starting point for us,” he said.
In a stage designed for breakaways, a large group formed, which included the Germans Nico Denz, Georg Steinhauser and Georg Zimmermann. The gap between the groups and the peloton led by Pogacar widened. And even at this early stage of the race, the star did not seem particularly keen to defend the yellow jersey.
Spotlight on the sprinters in Pau
Wednesday is the sprinters’ day. The 158.3-kilometre stage between Lannemezan and Pau in the south of France features no major climbs; there is just one short third-category climb on the route. Top sprinter Jasper Philipsen from Belgium won here the last time the race finished in Pau in 2024.
Copyright 2026, dpa (www.dpa.de). All rights reserved