Tadej Pogacar claimed the 100th victory of his professional career to move level on time with Mathieu van der Poel in the yellow jersey on a thrilling stage four of the Tour de France in Rouen.
In the hometown of the Tour's first five-time winner Jacques Anquetil, Pogacar took a stride to what he hopes will be his fourth title with a show of strength on another classics-style stage, beating Van der Poel and his great rival Jonas Vingegaard in an uphill sprint.
It was Pogacar's 18th career Tour stage win and one that put him on the same time as Van der Poel - who retains yellow on countback - with Vingegaard eight seconds back going into Wednesday's time trial. Pogacar, 26, became the fourth youngest rider to reach 100 professional wins.
Oscar Onley, the 22-year-old Scot riding his second Tour, was fourth on the stage as he was able to hang with an elite group of riders on a lumpy finish to the stage from Amiens, with all five categorised climbs in the last 50 of the 174 kilometres.
Lenny Martinez, the last survivor of a four-man breakaway, was collected with around 20km left as Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad and Vingegaard's Visma-Lease A Bike team came to the fore, quickly making a major selection in the peloton as few could keep with the pace.
Pogacar tried to attack on the steepest section of the last categorised climb, where gradients hit 15 per cent on the Rampe Saint-Hilaire, briefly distancing Vingegaard, who was the only man who could follow before getting back onto his rival's wheel by the summit.
Remco Evenepoel dragged a handful of riders back across to the leading pair on the descent into Rouen, Van der Poel among them, but there would be no beating the world champion to victory.
“I think today I got very, very close to the limit," Pogacar said. “I tried with an attack on the last climb and then Jonas followed me and everything came together.
“Joao [Almeida] did such an amazing job to lead me out until the very end, even if people were attacking so I'm super happy and proud of the team today, it's amazing and I'm just without words, it's such a nice victory.
“To win at the Tour is incredible, to do it in this jersey even more so and to win 100 victories is amazing... We will see [about taking yellow], tomorrow is the real test. Already to win a stage in this jersey for me it's enough, I just go on enjoying this race. Of course we aim for yellow and we will see.”
Evenepoel conceded another three seconds to Pogacar and Vingegaard, leaving him 58 seconds off yellow, while Primoz Roglic lost 32 seconds to fall one minute 27 seconds down.
Onley's performance was enough to lift the Team Picnic-PostNL rider up to seventh overall, 55 seconds down.
“It was pretty cool,” the Scot said of being in the mix. “It doesn't get much bigger than this in terms of races and competitors so it's nice to prove to myself that I can be there right at the top.”
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