World champion brings up the milestone with a sensational victory on stage 4, out-sprinting Mathieu van der Poel to the line in Rouen
Tuesday 8 July, 2025
Roaring to the line in Rouen, Tadej Pogačar won stage 4 of the Tour de France in sensational style, and in doing so, reached 100 career victories at just the age of 26. Racing his whole professional career with UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Pogačar becomes the fourth-quickest rider in history to reach the landmark.
The milestone was celebrated with aplomb beyond the line, as Pogačar was greeted by his teammates Jhonatan Narváez and João Almeida. Both riders proved crucial to Pogačar’s hopes in the finale, as stage 4 exploded over a series of challenging climbs late in the day.
Benefitting from a tremendous lead-out by Almeida on the uphill kick to the line, Pogačar burst around Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in the final 100m and would not be stopped by his rivals. Wearing the Yellow Jersey, Van der Poel hung his head with disappointment as Pogačar posted up in celebration, reversing the fortunes of both riders from Sunday’s stage 2.
With Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) in third place and Almeida rounding out the front group of six riders across the finish line, the stage results tell the tale of how difficult Tuesday’s finale proved.
No less than three categorised climbs were packed into the last 22km of racing from Amiens Métropole to Rouen, and with the help of his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates, Pogačar ensured that the race was as challenging as possible for his rivals.
Reflecting on his 100th victory after the line, Pogačar spoke of his delight at reaching the landmark wearing the rainbow jersey as world champion, with Team Principal Mauro Gianetti heaping praise on Pogačar’s teammates.
Pogačar: “I tried with an attack on the last climb and Jonas followed me, before everything came together. João did such an amazing job to lead me out right until the end, even if other people were attacking, so I am super happy and proud for the team today. They were amazing. I am just without words, it was such a nice victory.
“To win at the Tour is incredible, in this jersey, even more. To have 100 victories is amazing.
“There are so many good riders in the final, you are always a bit on the edge and nervous. You never know what is going to happen, and you never know until the final. Like today, you get this adrenaline and it is pure racing – I really enjoy it.”
Gianetti: “It is an amazing victory in front of two incredible competitors in Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Vingegaard. For us, it is an incredible day because I think all the team showed we are here, we are strong, and we are committed to Tadej.
“From Sivakov, Yates, Soler, Wellens, Politt, and then in the final, Narváez and João, they were incredible. Tadej capped it off with a great sprint and a great victory.”
How Pogačar made it to 100 career wins
Just four riders were in the breakaway of the day on stage 4, with the peloton recognising that the final 30km of racing would decide the winner. For UAE Team Emirates-XRG, this meant that earlier in the day, Nils Politt came to the fore and piloted his teammates into position for the challenges ahead.
When it came to crunch time, Pavel Sivakov was the first to put his nose to the wind, mopping up the remainder of the day’s break as the three all-important categorised climbs approached. Flanked by Marc Soler, the pair soon traded efforts through-and-off, ensuring that the pace remained as high as possible in the peloton.
Into the last 20km, Tim Wellens emerged at the front, sporting his all-polka-dot skinsuit as the leader of the King of the Mountains classification. The Belgian national champion led the race into the final few hundred metres of the Côte de la Grand’Mare – the penultimate climb – before Visma-Lease a Bike grabbed the reins through Victor Campenaerts.
Settling into the wheels, both Jhonatan Narváez and João Almeida wisely saved their powder for the Rampe Saint-Hilaire (800m at 10.6%), which would prove the final categorised climb of the day.
With a little under 6km to ride, Narváez plundered his way to the front and led the peloton from the very base of the climb. The Ecuadorian national champion’s pace-setting was scintillating, with riders dropping like a stone from the back of the pack. Almeida’s 200m pull would ramp up the difficulty even further, before Tadej Pogačar made his own attack at 5.4km from the finish.
Soon enough, only Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard remained at the front of the race, with Pogačar’s attack ensuring he would end the day in the polka-dot jersey. Though the pair were caught on the descent to the final ramp to the line, Almeida had recovered well enough to deliver a second impressive turn on behalf of the world champion.
With 3.2km to go, Almeida returned to the front of the race. Despite a series of attacks from other contenders, Almeida closed each and every gap, before producing an excellent lead-out for the final sprint. Mathieu van der Poel was the first to open up an acceleration, but the Dutchman proved no match for Pogačar in the end.
With his win, Pogačar moved level on time with Van der Poel in the general classification, ahead of the 33km-long individual time trial that will pit the GC contenders against one another on Wednesday afternoon.
