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Tadez Pogacar took a big step towards winning the Tour de France for a record-equalling fifth time with a dominant win on stage six, reclaiming the leader’s yellow jersey.
The defending champion easily established a lead on the iconic Col du Tourmalet in the first 186.2km mountain stage of the three-week race.
Pogacar, 27, was aiming to become the joint-most successful rider in Tour history with Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Marcoux, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.
Within five kilometers of launching his attack up the climb from the top of the Tourmalet, Pogakkar of UAE Team Emirates-XRG won by 30 seconds over his main rival Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark – and beat Radolpora of Evenpora of Belgium’s Evenpora in Even-Evengro by a devastating one minute and 45 seconds. Decathlon CMA CGM’s French hope is Paul Sexus.
Pogacar eventually crossed the stage line from Pau to Gaverny-Gedre two minutes 38 seconds ahead of Visma-Lease a Bike’s Vingegaard, with Pogacar’s teammate and elected main domestic Isaac del Toro of Mexico a further 19 seconds down, as well as Evenpoel and Seo.
Pogakkar took the overall leader’s yellow jersey after finishing nearly half an hour ahead of Norway’s former wearer Torstein Trein, who crashed early on the stage.
Wingard, 29, had no answer to Pogakkar’s trademark explosive early launch and pace management, which hammered out his timing in metronomic fashion.
Wingard returned to top form in the build-up to the Tour in 2024 after a serious crash that damaged his lungs.
As part of his recovery, Vingegaard has won two other three-week Grand Tours of cycling, including last year’s protest-hit Vuelta a España and May’s Giro d’Italia, where he won by more than five minutes overall.
But Thursday’s battle at Tourmalet showed that the rivals are a long way from when Pogakkar last beat him at the Tour in 2023.
“It’s one of my top five wins (yet),” Pogakkar said afterward. “I had flashbacks to the Tourmalette when I broke my arm in 2022. It was a really incredible victory – one of the sweetest.
“I woke up at seven this morning and my mind was already going crazy. I was really excited for today – all the guys were excited. I’m so proud of the crazy teamwork.”
The result gave Pogakkar a two minute 42 second lead over Vinjegaard in the general classification, with del Toro third, three minutes 27 seconds behind his team-mate.
Britain’s Tom Pidcock is 15th on the GC, nine minutes 50 seconds down after falling off the leaders in the Tourmalette, due to illness in preparation for the tour.
But the 26-year-old is still hopeful of winning the stage.
“Today, I thought, Tadez could win the Tour – and well…” Pidcock said.
“Being sick and missing the Swiss doesn’t help (me) but our performance is not that bad – the level is very high.”
2019 Tour of Colombia winner Egan Bernal is now 11th, nine minutes and 15 seconds down the top spot for the British Netcompany Ineos team.
