Dominant victory in the Pyrenees
Tadej Pogacar once again demonstrated his superiority. The Slovenian escaped alone on the Col du Tourmalet during the sixth stage of the Tour de France and crossed the finish line 2 minutes and 38 seconds ahead of Jonas Vingegaard. This is how he regained the yellow jersey.
“I would say this is in the top five of my Tour de France victories,” Pogacar stated. “It’s an incredible victory and, without a doubt, one of the sweetest. I wasn’t calculating seconds or minutes; I just wanted to go hard to the finish line.”
Mexican Isaac del Toro, Pogacar’s teammate in the UAE Emirates-XRG, finished third at 2:57. Remco Evenepoel and Paul Seixas completed the top five. Overall, Vingegaard is in second place at 2:42, while del Toro is third.
The day began with intense heat and several escape attempts. The Pogacar and Vingegaard teams set a high pace before the decisive climbs. The route included two mythical climbs: the Col d’Aspin and the Tourmalet, the latter of the HC category (Hors Catégorie), the hardest.
After passing through Aspin, Ben O’Connor took the lead but was neutralized in the final kilometers. Then, 4.5 kilometers from the top of Tourmalet, del Toro accelerated with Pogacar on wheel. The leader of the previous stage, Torstein Træen, dropped and then suffered a fall on the descent, although he was able to continue after being evaluated.
Pogacar attacked alone and crowned first. Vingegaard tried to close the gap on the descent, but Pogacar was faster. By the time they reached the final climb towards Gavarnie-Gedre, the lead was over a minute. He didn’t look back.
“I woke up at 7 in the morning and my mind was racing. I was very excited for today. I knew it was going to be a good day,” Pogacar said. With this victory, he takes a firm step towards his fifth Tour title, equaling Eddy Merckx, Miguel Indurain, Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault.
