Rouen [France], July 9 : Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) brought up his century of professional wins in style by outsprinting yellow jersey Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in a nail-biting finale to Stage 4 of the Tour de France in Rouen.
After an expert lead-out by his Portuguese team-mate Joao Almeida on the final ramp to the line, Pogacar put on the burners on the home straight to surge past Dutchman Van der Poel and take a sumptuous seventeenth Tour stage win of his career.
By digging deep to finish second ahead of Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), Van der Poel did enough to retain the yellow jersey by the narrowest of margins ahead of Wednesday's all-important individual time trial in Caen, for which Vingegaard will be among the favourites.
Double champion Vingegaard was the only rider capable of matching Pogacar on the final categorised climb of the day, the super-steep Rampe Saint-Hilaire - the fifth of a series of short but spicy ascents to pepper the final hour of racing in the undulating 175km schlep through Normandy.
The two riders sat up and were caught by a select chase group inside the final four kilometres before both Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) tried their luck ahead of the final rise to the line.
But Pogacar kept his cool and timed his sprint to perfection - emerging from the back wheel of the tiring Van der Poel on the home straight to stamp his authority on the 112th edition of the Tour, and take back the polka dot jersey in the process.
With Van der Poel and Pogacar tied for time at the top of the general classification, Vingegaard retains his third place at eight seconds with team-mate Jorgenson up to fourth at 19 seconds ahead of France's Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels), the white jersey.
Belgium's Evenepoel conceded three seconds thanks to a late split but rose to ninth place in the standings, at 58 seconds. There was more woe, however, for Slovenia's Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) after he was tailed off on the final climb. Roglic finished the stage 32 seconds back and is now 1'27" down on his compatriot, the three-time champion Pogacar.
An early three-man move featured French duo Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) and Thomas Gachignard (Team TotalEnergies), and Norway's Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility). Just as the peloton looked to sit back and accept the status quo, Denmark's Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost) darted clear in pursuit.
Asgreen's presence off the front changed the dynamic of the race and soon the Alpecin-Deceuninck team of the yellow jersey came to the front to ensure there would be no repeat of Asgreen's breakaway win from May's Giro d'Italia.
Once the Dane caught the leaders, the four escapees carved out a maximum lead of just over two minutes ahead of the day's major tests - five categorised climbs crammed into the final 50km of racing.
A flurry of crashes in the peloton ahead of those climbs reflected not only the nervous nature of the riders but the technical challenges of roads littered with traffic calming measures, pinch points and numerous twists and turns.
After Asgreen took the solitary point over the Cote Jacques Anquetil - named after the five-time champion whose chateau stands atop the climb - Abrahamsen took the spoils in the intermediate sprint, by which point the breakaway had the peloton breathing down its neck.
Italy's Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) took the maximum remaining points in the sprint to extend his lead in the green jersey standings before dropping like a stone on the succession of climbs on the road to Rouen.
Having suffered during the race's opening stage to Lille, Martinez looked bent on proving his worth - the pint-sized climber going clear on the Cote de Belbeuf. At the same time, the remaining escapees succumbed to the inevitable.
Martinez took the points on the Cat 3 climb before Belgium's Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) led the chasing peloton over to extend his lead in the KOM standings by a single point.
Wellens added another point on the penultimate climb after UAE looked to assert their authority on the race. But with 10km to go, it was Vingegaard's Visma team who came to the fore of a select yellow jersey group that had been whittled down to under 50 riders.
Belgium's Victor Campenaerts put in a supreme shift at the front ahead of the Cat.3 Rampe Saint-Hilaire before peeling off once the demands of the double-digit gradient became apparent. But despite their power in numbers, Visma soon found themselves outclassed once Ecuador's Jhonatan Narvaez launched Pogacar for what seemed to be the day's decisive attack.
As Pogacar left a trail of devastation in his wake - including the yellow jersey Van der Poel - Vingegaard battled back to his rival's wheel and the duo went over the summit together with a small gap on their chasers.
Those chasers returned to the fold on the sweeping downhill section into Rouen before the American Jorgenson put in a couple of attacks either side of an Evenepoel acceleration with 2km remaining.
Once Jorgenson's final effort had been neutralised by Almeida, Pogacar was able to shadow Van der Poel's wheel before darting clear to notch his 100th pro win while showing off his famous rainbow bands.
"I think today I hope everyone was on the limit," Pogacar later admitted.
"I tried an attack on the last climb. Jonas followed me and everything came back together. Joao [Almeida] then did an amazing job to lead me out at the end - and I'm super happy and proud of the team today. To win at the Tour is incredible, in this jersey even more, and to have a hundred victories is amazing. With so many good riders in such a final you're always a bit on the edge and nervous about what will happen. In the end you have this adrenalin with this pure racing, and I enjoy it. We will see tomorrow [with the time trial], which is the real test, " said Pogacar.
Indeed, the only blemish on Pogacar's copybook was a minor miscalculation that saw him return to the top of the KOM standings at the expense of his team-mate Wellens.
As a result, Pogacar will have to wear the Tour's polka dot skinsuit - as opposed to his own team's superior skinsuit - for Wednesday's race of truth, a largely pan-flat 33km ride to and from Caen.
Pogacar conceded 28 seconds to Vingegaard and 48 seconds to the Olympic and world champion Evenepoel in a time trial at the Criterium du Dauphine that was just over half the distance.
With that in mind, it's not infeasible to envisage either the Dane or the Belgian taking over the yellow jersey from Van der Poel on Wednesday.
Tour De France 2025 - Stage 05 - Caen - Caen action will continue on Eurosport.