Second for UAE Team Emirates' Tadej Pogacar as Primoz Roglic wins Stage 4 of the Tour de France

Team Jumbo-Visma rider Primoz Roglic celebrates winning Stage 4 of the Tour de France - ahead of UAE Team Emirates' Tadej Pogacar - on Tuesday, September 1. Reuters

The peloton during the 160.5km long Stage 4 from Sisteron to Orcieres-Merlette. EPA

The peloton during Stage 4. AFP

The peloton during Stage 4. Reuters

The breakaway group during Stage 4. EPA

Deceuninck-Quick Step rider Julian Alaphilippe after retaining the yellow jersey. Reuters

The peloton during Stage 4. EPA

UAE Team Emirates Solvenian rider Tadej Pogacar wearing the white jersey for best young rider after the race. Reuters

Primoz Roglic holhs off Tadej Pogacar to win the stage. Reuters

Left to right: Team Jumbo-Visma rider Amund Grondahl Jansen, Julian Alaphilippe of Deceuninck-Quick Step and his teammate Dries Devenyns. Reuters

The breakaway group during Stage 4. AP

Members of UAE Team Emirates. Reuters

The peloton during Stage 4. Reuters

France's Julian Alaphilippe, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, with the pack on Stage 4. AP

Trek-Segafredo rider Bauke Mollema, front left. Reuters

The peloton during Stage 4. AFP

Spectators applaud the riders during Stage 4. PA

The peloton during Stage 4. EPA

Spectators wait for the peloton during Stage 4. EPA

UAE Team Emirates riders before the start of Stage 4. Reuters

UAE Team Emirates rider Tadej Pogacar secured second place on Tuesday's Stage 4 of the Tour de France behind fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglic.

Roglic showed no ill effects of his crash earlier this month as he prevailed in the first mountain-top finish of this year's Tour, a 160.5-km ride from Sisteron.

Frenchman Guillaume Martin was third in a sprint featuring all the pre-race favourites.

France's Julian Alaphilippe retained the overall leader's yellow jersey when he took fifth place.

Pogcar's podium finish is the second for UAE Team Emirates at this year's race after Alexander Kristoff won the first stage of the Tour de France, a 156-km ride around Nice on Saturday.

Roglic, whose participation in the Tour was in doubt after a crash in the Criterium du Dauphine, eased to victory to claim a 10-second bonus and send an early warning to his rivals.

"It was quite a hard day actually, but the guys did again a really good job," said Roglic, whose Jumbo Visma teammate Wout van Aert set a fervent pace in the final climb, a 7.1-km ascent at an average gradient of 6.7 per cent.

Orcieres-Merlette has held a famous place in the Tour's history since Luis Ocana beat the great Eddy Merckx by more than eight minutes in the 1971 race before crashing out three days later.

Though Tuesday's stage was by no means as dramatic, the main contenders marked themselves in the final uphill section until the sprint, which saw Roglic move up to third in the general classification, seven seconds behind Alaphilippe.

Asked if he was disappointed not to have taken the yellow jersey, Roglic said: "It's the news that I have to accept, I don't really care. Like I said, a nice day, we stayed safe and we won which is even better."

With vehicles barred access to the final climb as organisers and authorities looked to avoid mass gatherings amid the coronavirus crisis, few spectators lined the road to see Roglic and the rest of the breakaway group.

One of the riders, Belgium's Tiesj Benoot, somehow walked away unhurt after skidding into a road barrier, breaking his seat post in two in the process.

Wednesday's fifth stage is a 183-km effort from Gap to Privas.

The top riders will have another chance to fight it out on Thursday when the sixth stage takes the peloton up to the Mont Aigoual, although they are likely to leave the real battle until the final week.

"It was a good climb to see how the GC riders are so yeah I'm happy to arrive with them as it was really hard," said defending champion Egan Bernal.

"It's not good to see another GC rider take some seconds. But I think we need to be patient and our best scenario is to arrive in the third week without losing too much time and then try to recover a bit of time in the long climbs, try to arrive as fresh as we can in the last week."