Tour de France 2025 LIVE: Stage 4 result and reaction as Mathieu van der Poel eyes second stage win

Mathieu van der Poel remains the overall leader of the Tour de France – but only by a whisker as defending champion Tadej Pogacar won stage four, his 100th career victory, to move level with the Dutchman on time.

The world champion bested van der Poel in an uphill sprint to the line in Rouen, with two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard coming third as the general classification favourites vied for the stage win.

The trio remain on the provisional overall podium, with last year’s third-placed finisher Remco Evenepoel losing another handful of seconds as a gap opened up at the finish, to now sit ninth, 58 seconds back. Primoz Roglic – the final member of the so-called ‘Big Four’ – was also distanced in the closing stages and sits 13th, 1’27” back.

Florian Lipowitz, Felix Gall, and Ben O’Connor were among the big names to suffer as Pogacar and Vingegaard piled the pressure on to once again demonstrate that they are a cut above the rest.

These two were once again simply better than everyone else. It’s going to be a thrilling Tour.

However, Pogacar is now equal with teammate Tim Wellens on 5 KOM points, and leads the standings, so he’ll be back in the polka dots tomorrow.

Not ideal for the time trial, as he won’t be in his usual team-issued skinsuit.

That adds an extra layer of explanation to UAE’s decision to have Tim Wellens take the polka-dot jersey of the KOM leader off Pogacar yesterday.

The Slovene had earmarked this stage for his 100th career win, and wanted to mark the century in the iconic rainbow stripes.

So Van der Poel retains yellow, despite some thought that Pogacar would take it on countback as a result of the bonus seconds he’s snaffled so far. But no, the Dutchman keeps it, and will be the last rider off the start ramp in tomorrow’s time trial.

But importantly for Pogacar, he’ll be second-last in the TT, going off behind Vingegaard so he’ll be able to chase his biggest rival.

1) Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), in 16hrs 46mins 00secs

2) Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), at same time

3) Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), +8”

4) Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), +19”

5) Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels), +26”

6) Enric Mas (Movistar), +48”

7) Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) , +55”

8) Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), at same time

9) Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), +58”

10) Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), +1’02”

1) Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), in 3:50:29

2) Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck)

3) Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike)

4) Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL)

5) Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ)

6) Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), all at same time

7) Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), +3”

8) Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), +3”

9) Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), +7”

10) Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels), +10”

Mark Cavendish will be looking nervously over his shoulder as Pogacar records his 18th Tour de France win, at the age of just 26. And this was earmarked as a possible stage for a breakaway!

The defending champ is looking pretty damn good.

It’s an exact parallel to last year’s Tour, when Pogacar won on stage four and took yellow, on the stage featuring the Col du Galibier.

Almeida was already celebrating, punching the air just before Pogacar crossed the line, and UAE surround their star man to congratulate him. All smiles.

Two bike lengths in the end between him and van der Poel, with Vingegaard putting in a great dig to close the gap and come third.