Mads Pedersen, Torstein Traeen shine in Stage 4 at Tour de France

Mads Pedersen of Denmark won Stage 4 of the Tour de France on Tuesday, while Torstein Traeen of Norway grabbed the overall lead on the first day of the three-week event held entirely in France.

Pedersen, 30, was the best of a 10-rider pack at the finish, completing the 181.9-kilometer route from Carcassonne to Foix in 4 hours, 10 minutes, 45 seconds to earn his third career stage victory.

Pedersen's Lidl-Trek team was well represented at the finish with Quinn Simmons of the United States finishing in second, while Mathias Vacek of Czech Republic was 10th. Raul Garcia of Spain finished third.

Traeen, 30, finished in eighth, with everybody in the top 10 earning the same finishing time. Traeen will take over the leader's yellow jersey from Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia, who finished 33rd, just shy of 13 minutes off the Stage 4 winning pace.

The United States' Sean Quinn is making the most of his second Tour de France by finishing seventh on Stage 4 and moving into second place in the overall standings, 28 seconds behind Traeen. Vacek is third overall, followed by four-time winner Pogacar and two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard.

The 26-year-old Quinn, from Los Angeles, was the U.S. road race national champion in 2024, while the 25-year-old Simmons, who is from Durango, Colo., is a three-time road race national champion. Simmons has won the national title in each of the past two years.

Wednesday's Stage 5 will favor the sprinters, with the 158-kilometer relatively flat course starting in Lannemezan and finishing in Pau.

--Field Level Media