Slovenian superstar rider Tadej Pogačar took control of the Tour de France after beating the other main general classification rivals up and down the Galibier pass in stage 4.

The 25-year-old UAE Team Emirates rider left his Danish rival Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) behind to earn the bonus seconds at the top of the first big climb of the race before stretching out his advantage on a daring descent into Valloire.

Soloing to the finish line 35 seconds ahead of Belgian Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step), he reclaimed the leader's yellow jersey after conceding it for a day to Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost), who finished the latest stage 5:10 minutes adrift.

In the general classification standings, Pogačar now has 45 seconds on Evenepoel and 50 seconds on Vingegaard in third.

"I'm super happy. This was more or less the plan, and we executed it really well," Pogačar told the organisers after his 12th Tour de France stage win and his 78th career victory.

"I wanted to hit hard today, I know this stage really well, I've been training a lot of weeks already, it felt like a home stage. I had confidence at the start. I had good legs, so I had to try," he added.

The other Slovenian favourite, Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) finished the stage in fourth, 35 seconds adrift, to climb to 5th overall with a gap of 1:14 minute.

He could not keep up with Pogačar during the climb but managed to reel in losses somewhat during the descent.

"Because of Tadej the tempo was really fast, but it suited him well, so congratulations," he said about the Galibier climb, telling RTV Slovenija things were getting better for him.