Watch: Tadej Pogacar blows past riders to set Tour de France record

Some say the Tour de France doesn't truly get underway until the mountain stages, where the best invariably separate themselves from the pack. The events of Tuesday's Stage 4 upheld the old theory.

In the first mountain stage of the 2024 Tour, two-time winner Tadej Pogacar produced an explosive attack roughly 2,600 feet from the summit of the iconic Col du Galibier and extended his lead on the 12-mile descent to the line, thereby reclaiming the yellow jersey from Remco Evenepoel.

As seen below, Pogacar blew past three riders — including his rival and reigning two-time champion Jonas Vingegaard — before he soloed clear to win the 87-mile Stage 4 from Pinerolo to Valloire. Pogacar's sudden burst of speed, referred to as a "tornado strike" by legendary announcer Phil Liggett on the air, forced Vingegaard to up his game but the Slovenian was too much to handle.

Pogacar reached a max speed of 23.9 mph during his incredible ascent on Galibier. He then maintained an average speed of 14.9 mph to race to the finish line, with none of his competitors in sight.

According to the Tour's official data, Pogacar shattered a previous King of the Mountain (KOM) record with his average speed on the Galibier ascent.

After his incredible showing, Pogacar revealed his team's (UAE Team Emirates) strategy was to set him up for the final descent and the plan was executed to perfection.

"I didn't want to go too early because of the wind," Pogacar said of his attack close to the Galibier summit. "So I had to make all the difference in the last few hundred meters. And then going downhill, I was little surprised to see wet roads in a few corners. It was a bit scary since that descent is super fast. But if you know the road, it helps."

Indeed. Pogacar knows the hallowed terrains of Galibier all too well. He similarly used the KOM stages to leave his imprint on the Tour during his 2020 and 2021 wins.

Despite failing to win the Tour in 2022 and 2023, Pogacar walked into this year's event as the overwhelming favorite in light of his dominating showing at the Giro d'Italia in May, so much so that Groupama FDJ team manager Marc Madiot predicted him to "kill" the race within the opening week.

While Pogacar hasn't done that yet, he has a healthy lead for the yellow jersey over Evenepoel (+45 seconds) and reigning champion Vingegaard (+50 seconds).