Tadej Pogačar turned the Tour de France on its head today with a vintage performance to take the win on the first mountaintop finish of the race and take back time on rival Jonas Vingegaard. The two-time Tour winner from UAE Team Emirates rode a tactically perfect race all day, outlasting the superior numbers of Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma team and laying down a ferocious attack inside the closing kilometers to distance Vingegaard, who re-took the yellow jersey after overnight leader Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) lost time.
- Jumbo tried a similar tactic to yesterday’s stage, sending Wout van Aert up the road in the day’s breakaway and then setting a fierce pace on the massive climb of the Tourmalet to try to isolate Vingegaard’s rivals. In contrast to yesterday, things worked according to plan at first, but then fell apart. Vingegaard himself accelerated at almost 50 km to go to pull clear with only Pogačar for company. Van Aert was able to help Vingegaard on the descent and up the first half of the final climb to Cauterets-Cambasque, where it looked like yesterday’s action might repeat. But Vingegaard had no answer for Pogačar’s sharp attack at 2.7 km to go, and lost 24 seconds.
- Understatement of the day: “We wanted to try to test [Pogačar] today and see how he felt,” said Vingegaard at the finish. “I suppose he felt better than yesterday.”
- Pogačar’s stage win also netted the top time bonus on the stage, of 10 seconds. While Vingegaard finished second to limit the damage, his overall lead is now just 25 seconds. Hindley is at 1:34 after simply being unable to hold Vingegaard and Pogačar’s wheels when the pair accelerated on the Tourmalet. “I would say it’s almost perfect now, the gap,” said Pogačar at the finish. “It’s gonna be a big, big battle to the last stage, I think.”
- Neilson Powless missed the initial breakaway but bridged across and quickly got to work targeting KoM points. The EF Education-EasyPost rider was first across the Col d’Aspin and managed to score points on the Tourmalet as well; he’s back in the polka dot jersey with a lead of eight points to Felix Gall in second.
Brief Results
- Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) 3:54:27
- Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) @ :24
- Tobias Halland Johannesen (Uno-X) @ 1:22
- Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar) @ 2:06
- James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost) @ 2:15
General Classification
- Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) 26:10:44
- Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) @ :24
- Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) @ 1:34
- Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) @ 3:14
- Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) @ 3:30
Brief analysis
- Hindley’s time in yellow ended earlier than perhaps anyone expected. While most observers expected the 2023 Tour to be a two-rider battle, Hindley’s palmarés and climbing chops suggested he might be a tough adversary. Instead, he fell victim to Jumbo’s aggressive tactics and superior team. Bora simply doesn’t have the riders to control a big breakaway on a major mountain stage, and that left Hindley isolated when Jumbo turned the screws on the Tourmalet. He didn’t so much crack as he was simply unable to follow Vingegaard and Pogačar’s pace, and could still be a player in the days to come.
- The stage also underscored just how aggressive the first week of the Tour has been. Long gone are the days when the GC favorites waited until the final kilometer or two of a climb to make their move. Instead, Pogačar’s aggression marked the opening stages while Jumbo was equally bold in the Pyrenees. How often is it you see the two top GC riders go clear with 50 km left to race and a major climb yet to come? But that’s exactly what happened today. The result has been one of the most exciting first Tour weeks in memory.
- Pogačar was back to his irrepressible self today. No mugging for the cameras in the race, but in the TV interview he was relaxed and playful. “Yeah, 10 stage victories; I’m coming for you, Mark!” he said before quickly adding, “no, joking, that’s far, far away.”
- The Pyreneean brace of stages was relatively short this year, which may have accentuated how hard they were raced. Despite the fierce pace, all riders were comfortably inside the time cut today; Soudal Quick-Step’s Fabio Jakobsen has been last or second-last over the line on three successive stages now, including his stage 4 crash on the Nogaro motor racing circuit finish, but he’s fought to stay in the race and it’s unknown how much that effort will cost him ahead of tomorrow’s expected sprint.
Up next: stage 7 preview
The sprinters come back to the front again on this 170 km stage from Mont-de-Marsan to Bordeaux. The route is almost dead-flat, and although an early breakaway may go clear we’d be surprised if the sprinters’ teams have any issue bringing it back. So it’ll likely be Jasper Philipsen and his Alpecin-Deceuninck leadout extraordinaire Mathieu van der Poel going for his third stage against the usual rivals: Lotto DSTNY’s Caleb Ewan, Phil Bauhaus of Bahrain Victorious, and of course Astana-Qazaqstan’s Mark Cavendish. After Paris, Bordeaux is arguably the most prestigious finish for sprinters in the Tour, and would be a fitting spot for his record-breaking 35th stage win. In 2010, he won here as well, the fourth of his fifth stage victories that Tour.
Quote of the day
I was thinking when they start pulling on the Tourmalet, if it’s gonna happen like yesterday we can pack our bags and go home.
-Tadej Pogačar on his initial reaction to Jumbo’s aggressive tactics on the Tourmalet
Over on the Tweets (or Threads, or whatever is the flavor-of-the-week platform today)
Sepp Kuss has now played a vital role in five Jumbo Grand Tour wins. Is a sixth in the offing?
Apparently after two straight days in the break even Wout van Aert needs some time off.
Additional reading:
- Giro Donne – Annemiek van Vleuten wash/rinse/repeat.
- Yesterday was Alexander Kristoff’s birthday. Did he smash a cake in anyone’s face this time?
- Want some tech? Of course you do. We’re STILL rolling out Eurobike coverage.
- Events have, um, overtaken us yet again, but the thesis of Edward Pickering’s rumination on chaos theory holds up.
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