Pogacar loses Tour de France yellow jersey to cancer survivor Traeen after breakaway

Mads Pedersen outsprinted his breakaway rivals to win stage four of the Tour de France as Torstein Traeen took the yellow jersey from Tadej Pogacar in Foix.

Former world champion Pedersen made it look easy as he surged clear of a small group to take his first win since stage 15 of last year’s Vuelta a Espana, and first Tour win since 2023, with his Lidl-Trek team-mate Quinn Simmons coming second for good measure.

Traeen, diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2022 after a routine anti-doping test, was eighth on the day and moved into yellow with the main peloton finishing some 13 minutes later, Pogacar happy to hand over the responsibilities of race leader a day after his stage win in Les Angles.

Every time the Tour has visited Foix it has ended in a breakaway win and it soon became obvious this day would be no different as 34 riders went clear in sweltering temperatures touching 40 degrees in south-west France.

The break splintered on the final climb but Lidl-Trek managed to get three riders in the front group of 10 – Mathias Vacek joining Pedersen and Simmons – and they were able to control a series of late attacks to set up Pedersen.

“This was I would say a masterpiece of teamwork,” the Dane said. “I was suffering a lot on the last climb but with Quinn and Vacek it was an incredible day, they did incredibly well on the climb to pace it for me and make sure we didn’t lose too much time.

“They were just machines to the finish. What a team effort, what a team win today.”

Uno-X Mobility’s Traeen, who spent four days in red at last season’s Vuelta, started the day five minutes off yellow, and once it became apparent the peloton would not chase, the 30-year-old’s only rival for the race lead was Sean Quinn, also in the front group but a further 28 seconds down.

“I think it’s quite hard for me to understand how big it is,” Traeen said. “You can see the face of my coach, the soigneur, everybody, you see how special it is but for me at the moment I don’t really understand what’s going on. Maybe in a couple of days it will sink in.”

Quinn moved up to second overall with Vacek third, three minutes 50 seconds down, and Pogacar dropping to fourth, almost eight minutes down and still on the same time as his rival Jonas Vingegaard as they save resources for later in this Tour.