Tour de France Stage 6: Tadej Pogačar Buries His Rivals in the Pyrénées

Tadej Pogačar went thermonuclear under the Pyrénéan sun on stage 6 of the Tour de France.

Pogačar unleashed a brutal high-mountain attack Thursday that blew away all his GC rivals in the first high-mountain stage of the race.

The four-time champion blasted out of his teammate Isaac del Toro’s wheel 5km from the summit of the Col du Tourmalet and rode more than 40km solo to take the yellow jersey.

Overnight race leader Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility) evaporated under UAE’s pressure on the Tourmalet and then crashed on the descent. The Norseman came to the line 30 minutes back, his 8-minute overnight lead obliterated.

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) braced against Pogačar’s high-altitude assault but could barely limit his losses. The Dane finished second, more than 2:38 back.

Del Toro led home a small group of GC wannabes, 19 seconds later.

Pogačar said at the finish he had one plan for the day – to demolish everybody.

“I think this is in my top-5 victories,” he said in his winner’s interview.

“I just wanted to do all the way to the finish, full gas. I didn’t think I would take the yellow jersey today because of Torstein Træen,” Pogačar said. “I heard now he [Træen] crashed really badly, I hope he’s OK. I would still maybe prefer if he could have kept the jersey today. I hope he recovers fast.”

It seems like Pogačar just can’t get away from that pesky maillot jaune.

Vingegaard has no answer to Pogačar’s powershow

This was a devastating display of power and intent from UAE Emirates-XRG as Pogačar chases a fifth yellow jersey.

Pogačar, his team, and his superdomestique Del Toro were untouchable in the first serious climbs of the race.

Pogačar started the stage 8 minutes away from the yellow jersey. He ended the stage wearing it and sitting on a deep GC cushion.

Vingegaard is second overall, 2:42 back on his archrival. As if that wasn’t damaging enough, Pogačar’s teammate Del Toro is now in third, 45 seconds behind Vingegaard.

Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe), Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), and Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull) are stacked up a few seconds behind Pogi’s partner in crime.

UAE Emirates-XRG delivers pain in the Pyrénées

Stage 6 was a classic Pyrénéan stage, but with a twist.

The legendary Aspin-Tourmalet duo towered over the center of a 185km course that stacked more than 4,000m climbing.

The mythical HC Tourmalet topped out at around 40km to go before a huge descent and a big ring grind to the line at Gavarnie-Gèdre. This was the first time the 19km, 3.7 percent valley-road climb featured in Le Tour.

The message from team UAE was clear from the start of Thursday’s stage: Tadej wants to win, and he’s going to make it happen with brute force.

“There was big hype with the team from yesterday talking about this stage,” Pogačar said at the finish. “I woke up at seven in the morning, and already my mind was going crazy. I was really, really excited.

“All the guys were really hyped so I knew it would be a good day. We just committed. We were going like nothing to lose,” he said. “Today was crazy teamwork.”

Pogačar stacked a murderer’s row of climbers in front of him to set up his killer move.

The UAE pain train gobbled a lone attack from Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla) on the Aspin and set a wild pace up sprawling 17km Tourmalet.

Træen was the first high-profile GC victim of Pogačar’s white-clad stormtroopers.

The Norseman popped 10km from the summit of the HC beast and hemorrhaged time. He then crashed on the descent and his 8-minute advantage over the GC bigs evaporated.

Superdomestiques like Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Matthew Riccitello (Decathlon CMA CGM), and Jai Hindley (Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe) also melted away under the 35 degree sun.

Pogačar torches the Tourmalet, sets new climbing record

Pogačar’s inevitable attack occurred 5km from the summit of the Tourmalet.

It was decisive.

Adam Yates peeled off the front of the bunch, and his teammates Del Toro and Pogačar blazed away.

Vingegaard was initially blown back by the UAE 1-2, but he didn’t capitulate.

The Visma-Lease a Bike leader limited his losses for several kilometers before Pogačar pushed harder toward the summit. The four-time Tour de France champion topped the Tourmalet with more than a 30-second gap over his rivals in what was a record-breaking ascent of the climb’s eastern flank.

GC riders were left scattered all over the road after Pogačar’s Tourmalet attack, and the Slovenian didn’t slow down from there.

Pogačar aced the descent from the Tourmalet and hit the base of the 19km tailwind climb to Gavarnie-Gèdre with a one-minute gap over Vingegaard.

All the podium hopefuls followed around one minute further back in a group of 8.

Evenepoel tried to incentivize the chase in the group that included Del Toro, Seixas, Lipowitz, and Ayuso, and Sepp Kuss.

But the collaboration wasn’t there, and Vingegaard narrowly clung on in the no-man’s land between Pogačar and the group to finish second.

Vingegaard came to the line, spent.

Climbers lick wounds on Friday

The Tour de France turns flat on Friday. Stage 7 climbs only 800 meters across its 175km ride north from Hagetmau to Bordeaux.

Pogačar’s rivals will welcome a chance to regroup after what was a full-scale assault by the Tour de France dominator.

Here’s a full preview of the second sprinter-friendly stage of the race.

Tour de France stage 6 results