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Tour de France organisers person insisted that Tuesday’s 4th stage, from Carcassonne to Foix, will spell ahead, contempt furnace conditions successful confederate France and predicted temperatures of complete 40C (104F).
The 182km stage, scheduled to tally done nan power of nan afternoon, comes aft nan Tour’s 3rd shape to Les Angles was held without nan accustomed publicity caravan and only mini numbers of fans, to debar expanding nan risks posed by wildfires raging successful nan eastbound Pyrenees.
But those concerns did not derail Tadej Pogacar, whose UAE squad controlled nan closing kilometres of nan stage, reeling successful nan past remaining escapee, Alex Baudin, to group up nan four-time champion for his 22nd shape triumph and first yellowish jersey of 2026.
Pogacar won nan shape from a strained Jonas Vingegaard pinch a typically explosive acceleration. That took him level connected clip pinch nan Dane, but his shape triumph besides ensured that he reclaimed nan wide title lead.
Already, nan Slovenian and his squad look to person a psychological stranglehold connected nan race. Vingegaard, whose Tour started truthful promisingly, is successful threat of slipping down his aged rival.
“We emotion to title and we’re present to title for nan victory,” Pogacar said. “We saw location was a anticipation to spell for nan shape and return yellowish and that’s precisely what happened.”
But Pogacar described nan continuing heatwave arsenic a “logistical nightmare”. “When its hot, for illustration today, we really commencement to put a batch of effort into bring h2o and crystal up to nan riders. Three guys person to spell backmost to nan [team] car and this makes a large difference.”
“This year, we person trained successful nan power pinch a support car behind, but past immoderate days you do 3 hours without a car, and you deliberation you are really crap because you overheat. Cooling is really important. It’s vulnerable if you don’t support your assemblage somesthesia down.”
Pogacar’s 22nd Tour shape triumph fuelled talk of him closing further connected Mark Cavendish’s existent triumph grounds of 35, but nan Slovenian, despite, being successful specified ascendant form, dismissed nan suggestion.
“It’s still acold away,” he said. “Maybe coming was my past triumph ever. I for illustration to enactment successful nan infinitesimal and bask this victory. I don’t want to deliberation astir Mark’s record. Just spell pinch nan flow.”
After 2 celebratory finishes successful Barcelona, nan Tour’s return to France was a moribund affair. Once nan peloton was done nan separator crossing pinch Spain astatine Puigcerda, nan crowds astatine nan roadside thinned out.
“My mum had messaged maine saying she couldn’t travel to spot nan stage, but past astatine 20 kilometres to go, it was afloat of people,” Pogacar said. “But it was a small spot sad to conscionable spot photographers and not nan accustomed large crowd astir nan decorativeness area.”
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At Les Angles, nan distant colony conscionable beneath nan last climb, cafes and bars were almost deserted, giving nan decorativeness nan aerial of a shade town. The town’s mayor, Michel Poudade, suggested that some nan Tour organisation and nan prefecture had gone “too far” pinch their information measures.
“It’s sad and it’s disappointing,” he said. “This is simply a colony of 680 people. It’s heartbreak. There are businesses present that are going to really suffer out.”
“We expected 20 to 25,000 group here. That’s each gone, each astatine once. I deliberation things could person been done differently. Everyone’s been building up to this for a year.”
The politician said that nary compensation has yet been offered to nan mini edifice town, though nan Tour whitethorn scheme to return soon, to dress up for nan town’s disappointment.
But nan consequence of further wildfires remains and 61 French regions are now connected orangish heatwave alert. Temperatures arsenic precocious arsenic 41C (105.8F) are expected successful Languedoc-Roussillon successful nan coming days, which, pinch shape finishes successful Foix and Pau connected Tuesday and Wednesday, seems definite to person an effect connected nan race.
“The information of nan riders and nan nationalist is our priority,” nan section prefecture reiterated and while immoderate of nan riders declare to person acclimatised to nan sweltering conditions, nan risks to roadside spectators remains. The French authorities person fixed support for stages to beryllium cancelled, but only successful “exceptional” conditions.
