ROUEN, France — Tadej Pogačar showed his sprinting skills by beating Mathieu Van der Poel in a dash to the line to win the hilly fourth stage of the Tour de France on Tuesday.
Van der Poel was the better sprinter of the two at the end of Sunday’s second stage and looked set to clinch a second win in this year’s race when he attacked about 200 meters from out and led.
But the defending Tour champion somehow found another gear to surge past him at the line, then pumped his fists in celebration.
They both have exactly the same overall time of 16 hours, 46 minutes after four stages, and count one stage win each, but Van der Poel kept the yellow jersey because of better finishing positions in the other two stages.
The 174-kilometer stage suited allrounders, starting from Amiens and ending with five consecutive small climbs to the Normandy city of Rouen.
The first of the climbs – Côte Jacques Anquetil – bore the name of a five-time Tour champion. The Frenchman dominated cycling in the 1960s, when he also won the Giro d’Italia twice and the Spanish Vuelta.
The peloton’s pace picked up strongly heading into the last two climbs, with speeds reaching 37 mph.
Pogačar attacked on the last climb up Rampe Saint-Hilaire and initially dropped archrival Jonas Vingegaard, but the two-time Tour winner responded well and caught up.
As the frontrunners turned for home, Van der Poel was right behind and then launched a trademark attack, like he did to win Stage 2 on Monday by outsprinting Pogačar.
But this time roles were reversed as the Slovenian star claimed the 18th stage win of his Tour career.
Vingegaard finished third.
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