The day the peloton blinked
Stage 4 rolled through Cathar country — five categorised climbs between Carcassonne and Foix, castle ruins on the skyline — and the peloton decided it was someone else's problem. An early move of 14 swelled to 34 riders, and the gap went from comfortable to catastrophic: over twelve minutes by the finish.
The Col de Montségur trimmed the front group to ten, and in the sprint that followed, Mads Pedersen was in a different league — a convincing kick ahead of Quinn Simmons and Raúl García Pierna, with Lidl–Trek teammates policing the finale.
A Norwegian in yellow
The real story was further back in the break: Torstein Træen finished eighth on the stage, and those twelve peloton minutes vaulted the Norwegian into the overall lead, 28 seconds ahead of Simmons. Two days after Pogačar took yellow at Les Angles, the jersey changed shoulders again — this time to a rider nobody had on their pre-race bingo card.
Biniam Girmay took the intermediate sprint. The GC men, presumably, took notes.
Stage details on the stage 4 page — the whole race lives on the Tour tracker.
