Pogačar rises above wildfire restrictions to take yellow jersey
Pogačar thrives in heat to take yellow with stage win ‘Maybe today was my last victory. I prefer to stay in the moment’ - Tadej Pogačar Four-time Tour champion 7 Jul 2026 - The Guardian Jeremy Whittle Tour de France organisers have insisted that the fourth stage today, from Carcassonne to Foix, will go ahead, despite furnace conditions in southern France and predicted temperatures of more than 40C (104F). The 182km stage, scheduled to run through the heat of the afternoon, comes after the Tour’s third stage to Les Angles was held without the usual publicity caravan and only small numbers of fans, to avoid increasing the risks posed by wildfires raging in the eastern Pyrenees. Those concerns, however, did not derail Tadej Pogačar, whose UAE team controlled the closing kilometres of the stage, reeling in the last remaining escapee, Alex Baudin, to set up the four-time champion for his 22nd stage win and first yellow jersey of 2026. Pogačar won the stage from a strained Jonas ...