"I don't know when the last time was that Pogacar had to sit down and allow someone to come back" - Thijs Zonneveld

Stage 4 of the Tour de France provided fireworks and in what way! Despite the peloton not having gone through a single long climb yet, we have had two stages with the world's best attacking each other and looking to gain time on the overall classification. This Tuesday, the World Champion Tadej Pogacar attacked all-out for the first time in this race, but he was unable to drop Jonas VIngegaard.

"I don't know when the last time was that Pogacar had to sit down and allow someone to come back. Never on such a short, explosive climb," Zonneveld argued on the In de Waaier podcast. "Normally, he goes away and then you don't see him again".

It was the climax of the stage, following a long leadout battle between the two strongest teams in the race to the Saint-Hilaire ascent, a short 800-meter long climb that averaged 12% but hit gradients as high as 18%. With it coming so close to the finish line in Rouen, a technical finale in the streets of the French city, attacks were expected.

After a brutal leadout from Jhonatan Narváez and João Almeida, Pogacar launched his own attack but was followed by Vingegaard - who looked to crack near the summit, but then returned to the wheel of the World Champion. The two stuck together to the finish with Vingegaard surprising with his explosiveness.

"There's a chance we'll get a real Tour. Vingegaard saw that he had to sit down too. At that moment, Pogacar transformed from the untouchable robot, an alien who is actually too good for everyone, into a human being. A human being who also knows his limits and boundaries. Vingegaard then closes that gap, and then they're together again".

Whilst Pogacar did win a few seconds in bonifications once again, he has not gained time on the road on his main rival yet, and there is certainly a certain positive outcome for Visma who have seen their team and leader perform to perfection on the first serious GC day of the race.

As for Remco Evenepoel, the Dutch pundit did not have as much positivity to deliver, after another small time loss and an oddly-timed attack: "He's losing out on corners and positioning today. In his attack, he simply rode two bad corners, allowing them to easily catch him".