Pedersen wins stage four as Traeen seizes the yellow jersey from Pogacar
Lidl-Trek's Mads Pedersen took a Foix sprint one-two, but the day belonged to a breakaway that put Norway's Torstein Traeen in yellow and dropped Pogacar to fourth.
Mads Pedersen delivered the Tour de France's first bunch sprint of 2026 on Tuesday, and it came with a twist that reshaped the race. The Lidl-Trek rider, world champion in 2019, powered clear on the run into Foix to win stage four from a large breakaway, with teammate Quinn Simmons completing a Lidl-Trek one-two and Movistar's Raul Garcia Pierna third.
The 182km stage from Carcassonne, ridden in heat touching 40C, was defined by a decision the favourites made early. A 34-rider break went up the road, and neither Tadej Pogacar's UAE Emirates-XRG nor Jonas Vingegaard's Visma-Lease a Bike showed any appetite to chase it down. Lidl-Trek, sensing the win was up front, drove the move instead. Over the 7km Col de Montsegur, with 35km left, ten riders went clear while the peloton drifted more than eleven minutes behind.
In the finale, rivals tried repeatedly to shed Pedersen, comfortably the fastest finisher in the group, but the Dane held the wheels and had far too much speed when it mattered. It was his third career Tour stage win, and it moved him into the green points jersey.
The bigger story sat behind them. With the bunch rolling in some thirteen minutes down, the yellow jersey changed shoulders: Norway's Torstein Traeen of Uno-X Mobility took the overall lead, becoming the fourth Norwegian to wear yellow after Thor Hushovd, now his team manager, and Alexander Kristoff. Traeen leads American Sean Quinn by 28 seconds. Pogacar, the four-time champion, surrendered the jersey and slipped to fourth at 7:53, level with Vingegaard, the two title favourites having quietly handed the day, and the race lead, to the escapees.
