Tadej Pogacar cracks Jonas Vingegaard to win Stage 4 thriller at Paris-Nice, takes overall lead

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) won his first serious battle with Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) of 2023 after an uphill tear-up on Stage 4 at Paris-Nice, with the Slovenian moving into the overall lead after a stunning victory. Pogacar, still smarting from losing his grip on the yellow jersey to the Dane at the Tour de France last summer, launched a devastating attack with 2.4km remaining of the first summit finish to La Loge des Gardes.

Ad Although Vingegaard initially kept him on a loose leash, Pogacar soon pulled alongside opportunistic leader David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and quickly formed an alliance. With the pair at the front working together, the rope snapped.

Vingegaard was done. Paris — Nice'His enthusiasm is infectious!' — Pogacar wins intermediate sprint for bonus seconds06/03/2023 AT 16:08 Pogacar and Gaudu locked horns up the remainder of the climb, which averaged 7.1% gradient, before the two-time Tour champion eventually cracked his French rival to deliver the statement WorldTour win of the season so far.

Vingegaard trailed home in sixth, some 43 seconds later. Pogacar leads the general classification by 10 seconds from Gaudu, with Vingegaard 44 seconds adrift in third.

Philipsen snatches stage 3 in Foligno after team-mate van der Poel's heroics Stage 3 highlights: Jumbo win revamped TTT as Cort takes overall lead The 164.7km run from Saint-Amand-Montrond to La Loge des Gardes was spiced up by howling winds, with a seven-strong breakaway eventually getting clear. The remnants of that break – Lilian Calmejane (Intermarche–Circus–Wanty) and Anders Skaarseth (Uno-X) – were swept up with 15km remaining at the final intermediate sprint, with Pogacar snaring another two bonus seconds to add to his six from