<\/div>\n
Tadej Poga\u010dar is in a giving mood at this Tour de France.<\/p>\n
\n
And in allowing Torstein Tr\u00e6en to put a chasm between himself and the yellow jersey on stage 4 on Tuesday, Poga\u010dar has given a gift that suits everyone.<\/p>\n
Because Pogi isn\u2019t worried about being on his biggest-ever gap from the front of the Tour de France.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s almost relishing the thought of being 7:53 away from the palaver that comes with the yellow jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome days it\u2019s a lot of stress with the media and some days it\u2019s easy to do it,\u201d Poga\u010dar said Tuesday of the obligations of a GC leader. \u201cIt just depends on the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been back on the podium a lot of times, and a lot of times doing all the extra work,\u201d Poga\u010dar said. \u201cToday will be one hour and a half less obligations. That definitely helps with the recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tr\u00e6en\u2019s historic ride on stage 4 of the Tour is the first yellow jersey in Uno-X Mobility\u2019s short history.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a remarkable turnaround for Tr\u00e6en, a rider who was diagnosed with cancer only four years ago. He\u2019s now 7:53 ahead of both Poga\u010dar and Jonas Vingegaard, the riders who dominated the Tour de France for the last 5 years.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a good news story for the Tour, for Uno-X Mobility \u2026 and for Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n
It frees the rider who\u2019s worn yellow more than 50 times of all the obligatory nuisance that goes with the maillot<\/em>.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar was almost hubristically nonchalant when speaking about \u201closing\u201d his yellow jersey on Tuesday.<\/p>\n He\u2019ll take it back when he wants it, thank you very much.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, obviously the goal is to take back the yellow jersey,\u201d Poga\u010dar said. \u201cBut you never know, they are really good, and now it\u2019s quite a big gap, so we will see, no?<\/p>\n \u201cWe will fight, but I think they can keep the yellow jersey in the team for a long time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar has already been accused of arrogance at this Tour de France. He makes winning so easy that he happily put Isaac del Toro in his debt by allowing the Mexican to win stage 2.<\/p>\n But, barring madness or disaster, Tr\u00e6en poses only a background threat to Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar \u201cgifting\u201d the breakaway a huge advantage on Tuesday made sense for everyone \u2013 even rival GC teams like Visma-Lease a Bike.<\/p>\n Because while Tr\u00e6en is a standout rider who\u2019s no stranger to leading grand tours, he\u2019s not one who will survive a superteam onslaught in the highest mountains of week 3.<\/p>\n When Tr\u00e6en broke out by wearing the red jersey for four days at the 2025 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, Vingegaard munched his 2:33 gap in two quick bites.<\/p>\n Traeen haemorrhaged 1:46 to Vingegaard and the pure climbers on a grippy mountain finish on stage 9 and lost more than a minute the very next day.<\/p>\n He ultimately finished the Vuelta in 9th, 10 minutes behind Vingegaard.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a total swing of more than 12 minutes from his initial GC advantage.<\/p>\n Tr\u00e6en and Uno-X know it\u2019s not a matter of if <\/em>he loses the yellow jersey, but when<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, of course, the Tour is the Tour,\u201d Tr\u00e6en\u00a0said Tuesday at his winner\u2019s conference. \u201cI will enjoy it [the jersey] every day I can. I just hope that I can wear it as long as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, Tr\u00e6en\u2019s 2:33 gap at the Vuelta was only a third of his huge 7:53 advantage over Poga\u010dar and Vingegaard at the Tour.<\/p>\n He and U.S. climber Sean Quinn, who\u2019s currently in second, stand to top the GC for a very long time \u2013 maybe as long as a week.<\/p>\n Stage 6 over the Tourmalet on Thursday is a \u201cfake news\u201d mountain stage that finishes with a 17km descent and a 19km false-flat uphill. It will shift but not reshape the general classification.<\/p>\n The first truly damaging mountain stages of this Tour de France don\u2019t arrive until the end of week 2 in the Vosges.<\/p>\n Until then, the Tour de France becomes a two-tier GC race:<\/p>\n 1. Tr\u00e6en and Quinn wrestling for yellow and hope to stay away from the superteams for as long as possible.<\/p>\n 2. Eight minutes behind them, UAE Emirates-XRG, Visma-Lease a Bike, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, and Lidl-Trek scrapping among themselves and waiting for the inevitable.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have to take Tr\u00e6en into account as a podium contender,\u201d Red Bull DS Klaas Lodewyck told HLN<\/em> after the stage on Tuesday. \u201cIt\u2019s nice for him, but there are other things coming up in this Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n The GC bigs might not see Traeen as a problem. The outsiders hunting a top-10 in Paris should.<\/p>\n Riders on the fringes of the GC battle might wish they didn\u2019t let Tuesday\u2019s superstar break get so far.<\/p>\n Uno-X Mobility was on Cloud 9 after stage 4. Traeen made their race by winning the team\u2019s first yellow jersey.<\/p>\n But the 30-year-old is not Uno-X\u2019s final priority.<\/p>\n Team boss Thor Hushovd said Tuesday the team is all-in for Tobias Halland Johannessen.<\/p>\n After finishing top-5 of Tirreno-Adriatico, Itzulia Basque Country, and the Tour Auvergne-Rhones-Alpes, the pure climber has a realistic chance of bettering his sixth-place Tour de France finish last summer.<\/p>\n \u201cHe [Tr\u00e6en] does have some margin, but our main goal remains Johannessen and his general classification. That doesn\u2019t change. Although we won\u2019t just throw the jersey away,\u201d Hushovd told reporters at the finish on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Uno-X Mobility is prepared to fight for yellow at this Tour de France. Tr\u00e6en could own the maillot<\/em> for some time.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Poga\u010dar and Vingegaard will enjoy the luxury of chipping away at their deficit while steering clear of the yellow jersey problem.<\/p>\n And Uno-X Mobility is also lucky enough to have a luxury problem \u2013 keep Tr\u00e6en in yellow for as long as possible while chasing a longer-term GC with Johannessen.<\/p>\n \u201cHe [Johannessen] was sixth last year, and we will try to do better this year,\u201d Hushovd said. \u201cWe think we\u2019re in a good position and leading the Tour de France gives more motivation to the group.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span><\/div>\n <\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france\/pogacar-gc-gap-tour-de-france-luxury-problem\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2284490533-scaled.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated July 8, 2026 10:57AM Tadej Poga\u010dar is in a giving mood at this Tour de France. And in allowing Torstein Tr\u00e6en to put a chasm between himself and the yellow jersey on stage 4 on Tuesday, Poga\u010dar has given a gift that suits everyone. Because Pogi isn\u2019t worried about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2034337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2034337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2034337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2034337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2034337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2034337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2034337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Tr\u00e6en repeats red jersey feat with yellow jersey raid<\/h2>\n
Tr\u00e6en could wear yellow for some time, but Poga\u010dar and the superteams will fight for it in Paris<\/h2>\n
![\"Torstein](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2284529209-1200x800.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Now Uno-X Mobility has two cards<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Q4A4393-e1783496750864-1200x890.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")