Tadej Pogacar made an early statement in the Tour de France as he dropped defending champion Jonas Vingegaard to claim victory in the first mountain stage and take the overall leader's yellow jersey on Tuesday.
The Slovenian attacked 800 metres from the top of the Col du Galibier, when the slope was at its steepest, and only Vingegaard followed but the Dane had to watch his rival fade in the distance 300 metres further ahead.
Pogacar pushed harder on the pedals, briefly looking back, before hitting the descent to Valloire at breakneck speed and gradually increase his lead over Vingegaard, who was then caught by other top contenders, including three-times Vuelta champion Primoz Roglic and Belgian prodigy Remco Evenepoel.
Ireland's Ben Healy finished 5:10 behind Pogacar in 31st place, having threatened early in the race before dropping back to help EF Education-Easy Post teammate and overnight yellow jersey holder Richard Carapaz.
Capping off an impressive show of strength by his UAE Emirates team, Pogacar finished the 139.6-km fourth stage 35 seconds ahead of Evenepoel and Spain's Juan Ayuso.
"It was the plan, and it paid off," his team mate Pavel Sivakov of France said.
Overall, Pogacar leads Evenepoel by 45 seconds.
Vingegaard, who easily responded to Pogacar's first move in the second stage, was just a notch down on Tuesday and finished the day gasping with his head down.
The Visma-Lease a Bike rider, however, can still take comfort from the fact that he had not raced in almost three months after suffering a collapsed lung in the Tour of the Basque Country in April.
He will have the opportunity to make his own statement in Friday's 25.3-km time trial, a year after he humiliated Pogacar in the solo effort against the clock on
cycling
Tour de France
Sport
Tadej Pogacar
Richard Carapaz
Juan Ayuso
Primoz Roglic
Jonas Vingegaard