Stage 6 Tour de France: Pogi Goes Crazy, Remco Gets Pissed & Vingegaard Vexxed

‘My mind was going crazy, so I was really, really excited for today!’

Yesterday we saw an incredible day of riding, a ride of sheer perfection on an iconic mountain, with heartache for Torstein Træen and a huge reality check for all GC contenders not from Slovenia!

All eyes were on the famous Tourmalet for Stage 6, and it seemed that everyone knew what was about to happen — and still could not prevent it.

“I knew that was going to happen today,” Tom Pidcock of Pinarello-Q36.5 said of Pogačar’s attack. “They [UAE] wanted to keep the jersey the day they lost it [to Træen], they didn’t manage it well that day. Now there are basically four easy days for him, so yeah, today was all the cards on the table. I said this morning, today Tadej can win the Tour de France.”

Pogačar attacked solo 5km from the summit and never looked back, riding 43km alone to Gavarnie-Gèdre for career win 123. The numbers tell a brutal tale: Pogačar rode the final 5km (13 minutes) of the Tourmalet at an estimated 7.2w/kg and around 465w, absolutely flying — he set a new fastest time of 43:12, smashing his own previous benchmark of 45:35 from 2023. That’s a legendary climb ridden like a time trial, solo, mid-Tour, in 30°C+ heat.

Just as impressive was his descending, where he kept putting time into Vingegaard, who himself is a good descender.

Vingegaard had no answer, losing 2:38, and admitted afterwards it simply wasn’t his day. “It was a very tough day. It was not the day I wanted, obviously, but that’s how it is sometimes,” he said. “They put in a big attack on the Tourmalet, and I couldn’t follow, and I had to settle within my own pace. Over the top I was not that far, but on a downhill like this, it’s not really suited to me.” Still, the Dane wasn’t ready to throw in the towel: “I’m obviously disappointed — I have to be — but sometimes that’s life, and I can’t change it. I still believe in myself. My legs will get better throughout the race, so the fight is not over.”

Del Toro was 2:57 behind, pipping an unhappy Evenepoel to 3rd on the bonus sprint — and that finish-line scrap opened up a whole other can of worms at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. Evenepoel didn’t hide his frustration afterwards, revealing that co-leader Florian Lipowitz refused to give him a lead-out as they fought it out for the final placings. “I understand why Del Toro and Sepp Kuss weren’t riding, but Lidl-Trek was there with just the two of them and they didn’t want to ride right away,” he said.

“I thought: what do you have to lose? If we work together, maybe we can get as far as Jonas. But a few riders wanted to drag again.” Evenepoel added that even teenager Paul Seixas was baffled by the lack of cooperation in the group — “He [Seixas] said that he didn’t understand why some riders were dragging themselves along. I told him that this is the Tour and that it wouldn’t be the last time.”

He’s so chippy, I love it.

Yellow changes hands too — Træen crashed on the descent after overcooking a hairpin with teammate Anders Johannessen right behind him, and abandoned after the finish with a concussion and multiple rib fractures. Speaking before the full diagnosis came in, Træen said: “I don’t know what the damage is. We’ll have to see what the X-rays say. My head hurts a bit and my ribs don’t feel great.”

Uno-X boss Thor Hushovd summed up the mood in the team camp: “This is really not the ending we wanted for this yellow adventure. To wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France is massive for any rider and any team, and for Torstein to do that, and to take the jersey over the Tourmalet, is something very special.”

I’m sure we all wish him a speedy recovery.

Pogačar was thrilled with his win, saying that he ranks it in his top 5 best career wins.

“It’s a really incredible victory, it’s one of the sweetest, for sure. Today I woke up at seven in the morning and already my mind was going crazy, so I was really, really excited for today. All the guys were really hyped, so I knew it would be a good day. We just committed. We were going with nothing to lose. If we exploded, we exploded, but in the end we succeeded.

“In my mind, I left everything to coincidence: whatever happens, happens,” Pogačar said. “I was not calculating any seconds or minutes or who’s going to win or whatever. I just wanted to go all the way to the finish full gas. I didn’t think I would get the yellow jersey today, but I heard now that Torstein Træen crashed really bad on the Tourmalet. It’s quite a bad downhill, really dangerous if you miss a corner, and I hope he’s OK. I would maybe prefer if he could keep the jersey today. I hope he recovers fast and that he can continue racing.”

Pogačar is almost 3 minutes ahead of Vingegaard, but the GC behind him is still close:

Top 5 GC after Stage 6: