Torstein Træen of Team Uno-X Mobility has surprisingly taken the yellow jersey at the Tour de France. The 30-year-old Norwegian was part of a 34-rider breakaway group on the fourth stage from Carcassonne to Foix, which broke away from the peloton early and built a lead of more than twelve minutes at one point.
Træen crossed the line in eighth after 181.9 hilly kilometres – and displaced defending champion Tadej Pogačar from the top of the general classification. The climbers’ group around the Slovenian finished 13 minutes later, leaving Træen now 7 minutes and 53 seconds ahead of Pogačar. Træen is only the third Norwegian in Tour history to wear the maillot jaune.
The stage win went to Dane Mads Pedersen, the 2019 world champion, giving the Lidl-Trek team their first stage victory of this race. His teammate, American Quinn Simmons, finished second – a one-two for Lidl-Trek. Third place went to Spaniard Raúl García Pierna (Movistar).
Pogačar (UAE Emirates-XRG) dropped to fourth overall, tied on time with Dane Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike). The best German of the day was Georg Zimmermann (Lotto-Intermarché) in 17th at 2 minutes and 27 seconds back – he had long featured among the lead group before being dropped on the final climb.
Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull) finished with the main field in 60th place and sits 11th in the general classification, 8 minutes and 46 seconds behind Træen. In the scorching heat of nearly 40 degrees, Cologne’s Nils Politt, the time trial champion, controlled the peloton’s pace for a long time – however, he received no instruction to chase down the breakaway this time.
Wednesday brings a 158.3-kilometre stage from Lannemezan to Pau, where a sprint finish is expected – with a steep third-category mountain pass around 25 kilometres from the finish as the decisive obstacle.
