The sixth stage of the Tour de France on Thursday marked the first arrival at the top of this 110th edition, in Cauterets-Cambasque, passing through two giants, the Aspin and Tourmalet passes. And it was the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar who won after a superb fight against his rival Jonas Vingegaard who could not do anything against the offensive led by the double winner of the Big Loop (2020 and 2021). The Dane, title holder, still recovers the yellow jersey at the expense of the Australian Jai Hindley.
The route of the sixth stage
Credit: official Tour de France website
Vingegaard “would have liked to let go” of Pogacar in the Tourmalet
“I’m extremely happy to be in yellow again, I love the color, it’s the biggest symbol of our sport, it’s huge for me. Pogacar had better legs today, we tried in the Tourmalet, I think it was seen! But I didn’t manage to unhook it at that moment. I would have liked to unhook it at that moment, I would have had Van Aert to lead the train in the valley. It would have been perfect to drop him in the Tourmalet but he was in much better shape today than yesterday,” said the winner of the previous edition.
Pogacar savors a “great relief”
“I wouldn’t say it’s a rematch, I’m happy to have won today. It’s good to win and to take some time off, it’s a bit of a relief. Who wouldn’t be worried with what Jonas showed yesterday? It was amazing. When he started riding in the Tourmalet, I thought ‘Damn, it’s going to happen to me again like yesterday, we’re going to take the bike and we’re going to go back to the house'” Fortunately, I had good legs today, I was able to follow him in the Tourmalet. I felt pretty good and after when I felt the right moment, I attacked at the end. It’s a great relief”, governed the winner of the day.
Pogacar’s revenge
Despite the lack of support from his UAE team, the Slovenian attacked 2.7 km from the finish to finish 24 seconds ahead of his rival and pocket 4 bonus seconds as a bonus. In the general classification, Vingegaard is only ahead of Pogacar by 25 seconds. Vingegaard and Pogacar took off in the Tourmalet, the penultimate climb of the day, where the Danish defending champion’s Jumbo-Visma team blew up all the other cadors. On the descent to Luz-Saint-Sauveur, they found the survivors of the morning breakaway, which once again featured Wout Van Aert, Vingegaard’s teammate.
The Belgian towed a small group of eight riders until two-thirds of the last climb, the moment of the royal explanation between Vingegaard and Pogacar. And, while we thought that the Dane had the advantage, it was the Slovenian who proved to be the strongest to relaunch the Tour with panache.
The Tourmalet, a good memory for Thibaud Pinot
“It’s an arrival at the top which is not extremely difficult. But we will have climbed the Aspin and the Tourmalet before,” summed up Thierry Gouvenou, technical director of the Grande Boucle. The beginning of the last ascent “to Cauterets is very fast, not much can happen. But at the exit, we have three very difficult kilometers to go to the finish line. It’s conducive to attacks, to get a few seconds and blow up the group of leaders”, adds the course tracer.
This is the 85th time that the Tour de France has passed through the Tourmalet since its first ascent in 1910. The creator of the Tour, Henri Desgrange, had long hesitated to put the pass on the program because it was so difficult when it was not yet just a dirt and rocky road.