‘What you doing?’

-What do you mean?

‘You just took that from me yesterday…’

-Yep.

‘And now… you’re giving it to him?’

-Just for safekeeping, I’ll get it back later…

Pogačar went out and bought some wrapping paper last night and a big flouncey bow, and gift-wrapped this one, and handed it to Traeen, who gleefully accepted.

With a 30-plus rider breakaway going clear early and neither UAE nor Visma bothering to control it, Pogačar let himself ride over the finish line a rather hefty 13 minutes down — a calculated move to alleviate the pressure that the lead of the race brings before the real mountains arrive. 

Mads Pedersen powered to victory and it really was a Lidl-Trek lesson in managing a break with numbers and a whole lotta power, taking the Green jersey in the process. Pedersen was rightly quite pleased with his win, calling it “a masterpiece in teamwork,” and what a sprint too, as he put a couple of London buses between himself and the rest.

Meanwhile, Norway’s Torstein Traeen — a cancer survivor, who get the heads up on that after a doping test in 2022 — inherits Yellow, an great story. Træen underwent a routine doping control that detected abnormally high levels of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a banned hormone that is typically only present in pregnant women or those with specific tumors. It was detected early and removed.

“For me at the moment, I don’t really understand what’s going on,’ said Train.  “So I think in a couple of days maybe it will sink in, but the Tour is the biggest race in the world and now I just have to enjoy it.”

Uno X General Manager, Thor Hushovd, was visibly emotional at the end of the stage yesterday.

“I’m emotional, and I still am, because it was not what we were aiming for this morning, you know? It kind of happens, but it happens when we race like this, when we are not afraid of going into breakaways, and we are offensive,” Hushovd told the media at the finish.

“Everybody also knows a lot of the steps we take as a team, step by step… not huge, but steps year by year… I’m a very proud man today.”

I raced with Hushovd in 2012 and we had a few chats as we rolled along, he’s a nice guy, it’s good to see him and the team doing well.

Pogi andf Vinggy are 7:53 behind, and will be expected to cut into Traeen’s lead in the mountains.

Stage 4 top 3: Pedersen, Simmons, García Pierna

GC top 3: Traeen, Sean Quinn +28″, Mathias Vacek +3:50 (Pogačar 4th, +7:53)