"A race with two aliens and the rest of the peloton" - How Marc Madiot describes the Tour de France battle

Although on stage 5 it seemed as if it would be different as Jai Hindley rode to a superb win and yellow jersey, stage 6 of the Tour de France saw a battle between Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar, who were superior to the rest. Marc Madiot was expecting this scenario already.

"There are two races, but you don't need to have done Saint-Cyr to know it. A race with two aliens and the rest of the peloton. Jumbo-Visma made life a lot easier for Tadej Pogacar. They rode with him in the wheel, whether in the Tourmalet or the final ascent," Madiot, manager of Groupama - FDJ, told Cyclism'Actu. "It's a good case for cycling schools, I don't don't understand that at this high level of competition you can make this mistake."

Analyzing Jumbo-Visma's strategy on the day, he is critic of the work they put in after Pogacar managed to respond to Vingegaard's attack on the Col du Tourmalet, where the team hoped to have dropped everyone, and then have Wout van Aert to pace the reigning champion all the way into the final climb. A plan perfectly executed, but the Slovenian responded accordingly. "They wanted to put him in the red and blow him up, but Pogi is not a broomstick. They played with fire and got burned."

Meanwhile David Gaudu continued a good Tour de France where he has shown the form he lacked at the Criterium du Dauphiné. Gaudu starts stage 7 in 7th place, 4:03 minutes down on Vingegaard who's taken over the race lead. "It's tight, we're here, the Tour has only just begun. We're not too bad. We'll see day after day and the next meeting will be the Puy-de- Dome," he concluded.