Tour de France stage 4: Pedersen Aces Sprint from Breakaway, Træen Scoops Yellow

Mads Pedersen clocked up the third Tour de France stage win of his career and boosted his green jersey prospects with a massive sprint at the end of stage 3, winning into Foix from the break.

The Danish rider finished several lengths clear of the rest of the break, with teammate and US national champion Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) finishing second and Raúl García Pierna (Movistar Team) third.

Testicular cancer survivor Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility) finished eighth in the break and took over the race lead from Tadej Pogačar.

The UAE Emirates-XRG leader was content for the break to go clear and while he drops down the standings, he is poised to strike again when the race hits the high mountains.

He and the other GC contenders finished a staggering 12:59 back, content to use the day as a opportunity to recharge batteries in advance of tougher stages ahead.

Træen leaps up 24 places to first, with US rider Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost) seventh across the line and now second overall. He is 28 seconds behind Træen and will hope to move into yellow in the days ahead. Vacek is third with Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard fourth and fifth overall, 7:53 back.

Pedersen’s success depended greatly on the work of Simmons and Mathias Vacek, who were also part of a massive 54 man break which went clear very early on.

This was whittled down to ten riders over the day’s final climb, with various riders trying their utmost to evade a Pedersen-dominated sprint. However Vacek and Simmons were too strong, keeping things together and paving the way for the third Tour stage win of Pedersen’s career.

He is now snug in the green jersey, his 103 points far above that of this morning’s leader Pogačar.

“This was, I would say, a masterpiece in team work,” he beamed. “Maybe not climbing, I was suffering a lot on the last climb. But with Quinn and Vacek there, it was an incredible day. They did incredible on the climb to pace it for me and to make sure that we didn’t lose too much time over the top.

“Then they were just machines from there to the finish line. What a team effort and what a team win today.”

A massive break gets whittled down

Stage 4 of the Tour de France had a profile which suggested a breakaway win was possible, and that led to attack after attack at the start to get into the move.

Simmons was on the move from the off, fancying his chances. He, Lidl-Trek teammates Pedersen and Vacek, Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost), Kevin Vauquelin (Netcompany Ineos), Jasper Stuyven (Soudal Quick-Step), Frank van den Broek (Picnic PostNL) were part of a 14 man breakaway very early on, with these riders being joined by 40 others.

Those bridging across included American rider Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost), Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla), Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility), Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Biniam Girmay (NSN Pro Cycling).

Træen was best-placed overall, starting the day 24th overall, 5:06 off yellow. Quinn was next best, 28 seconds further back.

Girmay won the intermediate sprint ahead of Philipsen and Pedersen, helping their green jersey chances. Girmay and Philipsen were then distanced on the category 2 ascent of the Col de Coudons.

That climb was hard enough for Tratnik and Vacek to gap the others and go over the summit together, with Alex Kirsch (Cofidis) bridging. They led onto the final climb, the Col de Montségur, but were joined there by a small chase group.

Simmons and Quinn were present and looking very strong, with more riders getting across after the summit to make it ten out front.

Also there were Pedersen, Træen, Vacek, Vauquelin, Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Marco Frigo (NSN), Pablo Castrillo and Raúl García Pierna (Movistar Team).

Pedersen was the obvious danger, not least with teammates Simmons and Vacek there, and others tried repeatedly to leap clear and to foil a sprint.

However the Lidl-Trek riders worked hard to keep things together and Pedersen finished lengths clear, with Simmons snatching second.

“It is super nice. It seems that everyone on the team but me got a prize, but it is nice,” the American smiled.

“When you have someone like Vacek and a leader like Mads on the team, with our horsepower combined, on a good day it is hard to beat us. I am just glad it worked out for Mads and he got the stage.”