Pedersen wins Stage 4 as Træen claims yellow jersey

Mads Pedersen of Denmark won the fourth stage of the Tour de France on Tuesday in a dominant display of teamwork, while Norway’s Torstein Træen seized the overall race lead after a large breakaway built an insurmountable advantage in scorching heat.

Pedersen, the 2019 world champion, sprinted clear in the final 300 meters in Foix to claim his third career Tour stage victory. He finished several bike lengths ahead of his Lidl-Trek teammate, American Quinn Simmons, with Spain’s Raúl García Pierna taking third. The top ten riders, including Træen in eighth, all received the same time after the 181.9-kilometer route from Carcassonne.

The stage, raced in temperatures approaching 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), was decisively shaped by a 34-rider breakaway that formed early. With the main peloton, including previous race leader Tadej Pogačar, showing no intention to chase, the gap ballooned to over 13 minutes by the finish. This allowed Træen, who started the day just over five minutes behind Pogačar, to become the virtual leader on the road and ultimately claim the yellow jersey.

Træen now leads the general classification by 28 seconds from American Sean Quinn, who finished...