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Norwegian Torstein Traeen claimed the coveted race leader’s yellow jersey as Denmark's Mads Pedersen won the fourth stage of the Tour de France on a day of Nordic delight on Tuesday.
Traeen stripped reigning champion Tadej Pogacar of the jersey just two days after Norway stunned five-time winners Brazil at the World Cup thanks to a brace from Erling Haaland.
Pedersen, who was world champion in 2019, stormed to victory in a sprint finish ahead of Lidl-Trek team-mate Quinn Simmons in second with Spaniard Raul Garcia taking third at the end of the 182km stage from Carcassonne to Foix in scorching temperatures which topped 40C at one point.
It was Pedersen's third stage victory at the Tour following one each in 2022 and 2023 and was enough to see him take the green points jersey.
Traeen, who had started the day just over five minutes behind reigning champion Tadej Pogacar in the race lead, was part of an initial 34-man breakaway which formed around 25km into the stage.
That had been whittled down to 10 over the day's final climb and Traeen came home in eighth.
With the peloton finishing 13 minutes after the stage winner, Traeen now leads the yellow jersey standings by 28 seconds from American Sean Quinn, a fellow breakaway companion who finished ninth on the stage.
Pedersen's Lidl-Trek team-mate Mathias Vacek, who finished the stage 10th, is now third overall at 3min 50sec and now leads the young rider's white jersey competition.
Pogacar dropped to fourth at 7min 53sec, on the same time as his arch rival Jonas Vingegaard in fifth.
For Traeen, 30, it will be the second time he has led a Grand Tour, having worn the leader's red jersey at last year's Vuelta a Espana for four days.
He is the third Norwegian to wear the Tour's yellow jersey after Thor Hushovd, who is now Traeen's Uno-X Mobility team manager, did so in 2004, 2006 and 2011, and Alexander Kristoff, who held it for one day in 2020.
A 34-man breakaway group went clear in the first 25km and it was soon clear that Pogacar's UAE Emirates-XRG team had no intention of controlling the gap, or holding onto the yellow jersey.
Sprinters Biniam Girmay and Jasper Philipsen dropped out of the break after the intermediate sprint, won by the Eritrean ahead of the Belgian.
A couple more riders were shed on the 10km-long Col de Coudons just after the halfway point of the race but the true battle for the stage win – and the yellow jersey- took place on the 7km-long Col de Montsegur at 1,059m.
Over the top with 35km left, 10 riders went clear with the peloton more than 11 minutes behind.
Quinn tried to drop Traeen on the climb but the Norwegian would not budge and had the yellow jersey in his sights.
Several riders tried to drop Pedersen – who was by far the fastest sprinter in the group – but the 30-year-old dug in and kept in contact.
He had two team-mates in Simmons and Vacek to help control the run-in to the finish and when he launched his sprint 300-metres from the end, he streaked clear to win by several bike lengths.
