"He showed that Pogacar also has limits" - Bjarne Riis predicts epic showdown between Vingegaard and Pogacar for the rest of Tour

Jonas Vingegaard was the most pleasant of all surprises on the stage 4 of Tour de France, being the only man capable of countering Tadej Pogacar on the steep Rampe Saint-Hilaire. If Vingegaard can be on par with the Slovenian in classics-like stages like this one, we may only look forward to seeing the battle in high mountains in second half of the Tour.

"I just had time to think 'oh,' when he was put down, but Jonas still got back up," says Bjarne Riis who is commentating Tour de France as expert for the Danish BT.

For a brief moment, it seemed like Pogacar would eventually break the Dane just under the top, but the Slovenian needed to slow down a few meters further too, allowing Vingegaard to recover his wheel. "Both he and Pogacar were on the limit, and it was positive that he could close the gap. It showed that Pogacar also has his limits. Although it seemed a little strange that Jonas just stopped before he gave it another go."

"It's going to be really exciting from here on out. Jonas is not far from him, so anything can happen," says Riis about Vingegaard, who is eight seconds behind his rival in the general classification (due to bonification seconds).

Vingegaard declared before the start of Tour that he had worked on his explosiveness, something we can see has borne fruits in the opening stages. "Jonas has definitely put in some effort. His explosiveness has improved somewhat," he assesses about Vingegaard's finish and third place in Rouen.

Not only Vingegaard was representing Denmark at the front of the race today. His compatriot Mattias Skjelmose also put in a tremendous effort to almost comeback to the group of favourites. Eventually it was a 9th place for the Lidl-Trek rider who enters the top-10 in GC after the stage.

"It was a good ride by Skjelmose, he's quietly sneaking up. He has to hang on as long as he can. When he can't be in the classification anymore, he has to go after stage wins. He's not the deadly threat to the others, but he can sneak away at the right times."