DISCUSSION Tour de France stage 4 | 100 wins for Pogacar, is he the best cyclist in history?

Stage 4 delivered a thrilling finale, in a stage that featured 5 categorised climbs in the last 50 kilometres. The breakaway of the day was formed by Lenny Martinez, Thomas Gachignard, and Jonas Abrahamsen, with Kasper Asgreen joining the group later after an attack from the peloton.

Away from GC duties, Lenny Martinez was the last rider to be caught by the peloton, securing valuable points for the polka-dot classification.

With 5 kilometres to go, Pogacar launched an attack and managed to create a gap together with Vingegaard, but Evenepoel was able to bring the group back together.

Finally, Tadej Pogacar took the 100th victory of his professional career in an exciting head-to-head battle with Mathieu van der Poel, mirroring the showdown we saw on Stage 2, where the Dutchman came out on top.

Jonas Vingegaard completed the podium and is now eight seconds off Pogacar, who is tied on time with Van der Poel, the latter holding the yellow jersey.

Once the stage finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways about what happened today.

Tadej Pogacar is extremely strong. Until the last 50 meters, I was convinced that Mathieu van der Poel would win the stage. I wonder if the Slovenian could have gone solo on the last climb, but he preferred not to bait himself and win the sprint.

Jonas Vingegaard is also in form and has a chance to take the yellow jersey in tomorrow's time trial. But the favorite will be Remco Evenepoel, who was with the best today.

As for the Spaniards, Enric Mas has been a bit below his level so far today, but we already know that he favors long and continuous climbs much more than these short and very steep slopes. Carlos Rodriguez continues to disappoint and has again dropped time.

PS: João Almeida is a beast.

Is there even a limit to what Tadej Pogacar can do? With today’s win on Stage 4 of the Tour de France, the Slovenian reached the incredible milestone of 100 professional victories (and he is just 26 years old). I feel that this is just the start. There are still 17 stages left in the Tour, and so many finishes are custom-built for him, so I think the century mark will soon be outdated.

And yet, Pogacar is still second in the general classification, just behind Van der Poel, who denied him the yellow jersey on stage 2. Had things gone just slightly differently, he could have worn the maillot jaune from the very beginning. That raises another question: will we ever see Pogacar lead a Grand Tour from start to finish, wearing yellow (or pink or red) for all 21 days?

Personally, I don’t like it when teams tell their riders to lose the yellow jersey intentionally, so they don’t have to spend as much time on the podium ceremony, and the team doesn’t feel the pressure and responsibility to pull in the peloton. Of course, I understand the reasoning behind that decision, but I would love to see one day Pogacar wearing the leader jersey for a whole three-week race.

Moving back to what happened on today’s stage, Vingegaard continued to show that he is in really good shape, and he continues to demonstrate that his explosiveness has improved. I think this factor will be crucial for him in the mountain stages.

Joao Almeida showed us again that he is the best domestique that a leader like Pogacar can ever dream of. He quickly chased Evenepoel in his late attack and brought calm to the race when it needed the most.

The negative side of the day has been Roglic… again. Similarly to what happened on stage 2, this finale suited him perfectly, but again, he was nowhere near the front group. He arrived 32 seconds behind Pogacar, in 18th position together with Tiesj Benoot, Enric Mas, and Alexey Lutsenko.

I am looking forward to tomorrow's time-trial. I think it might reshuffle the standings. Riders like Evenepoel or Roglic need to use this opportunity to improve not only their GC standings, but also to boost their morale for the upcoming stages.

What about the final kilometres of the race? João Almeida is simply brutal. The way he recovered positions after being cut up in a crash (although he didn't fall, he put his foot down) is something only a few people can achieve. It's time to stop talking about bad positioning, unnecessary time losses and be proud of the cyclist we have the pleasure of watching ride.

If Pogacar took his 100th victory today, he has Almeida to thank. He said before the race started that he was there to destroy the peloton in favour of his leader and today that's what he did. He responded to Remco Evenepoel, responded to Matteo Jorgenson and led the sprint for the Slovenian, who was on MvdP's wheel. When Mathieu van der Poel opened the sprint, it was clear that Pogacar would be the only one fighting with him for victory at the finish line.

Even though they both felt the effort they were making before crossing the line, the World Champion closed the team's work with a flourish. João Almeida is definitely becoming a monster. A monster who will make a name for himself in the Grand Tours very quickly.