Pogacar loses yellow jersey in Tour de France heatImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Mads Pedersen last won a stage of the Tour in 2023Published17 minutes agoMads Pedersen sprinted clear from a breakaway to win the fourth stage of the Tour de France as defending champion Tadej Pogacar lost the yellow jersey and slipped to fourth.Dane Pedersen timed his run for the line at the end of the 181.9km stage to perfection as temperatures reached 40C in southern France.Uno-X Mobility rider Torstein Traeen is the new race leader after finishing eighth in the stage – almost 13 minutes ahead of the peloton.Pedersen’s Lidl-Trek team-mate Quinn Simmons was second on the road, with Movistar’s Raul Garcia Pierna third.Four-time champion Pogacar – who loses the yellow jersey after just one day for the third year in a row – was 33rd in the stage and trails the new leader by seven minutes 53 seconds.
Riders put blocks of ice down their tops as they battled the severe heat that has hit southern Europe this week.
The pack were allowed to carry bags of ice and water instead of individual bottles as an experiment.
Traeen – the third Norwegian to wear yellow – was treated for cancer in 2022, external.
More to follow.
