DISCUSSION Criterium du Dauphiné Stage 6 | Can someone beat Tadej Pogacar in the mountains?

Stage 6 of the Criterium du Dauphiné featured the first mountain test for the riders, marking the beginning of the super weekend that is ahead of us.

Eight riders went clear, including Mathieu van der Poel, who doesn’t waste any opportunity to be protagonist. However, the break never had chances to succeed, as the peloton kept them at a close distance throughout the whole stage.

Florian Lipowitz was the first man among the favourites to attack, during the Côte du Mont Saxonnex, causing the bunch to be reduced to barely 10 riders. He was caught eventually, and in the final climb, UAE set a terrible pace that anticipated a Pogacar attack.

And that is exactly what happened. Pogacar attacked with around 7km to go and nobody could follow him, not even his nemesis Jonas Vingegaard. Pogacar got the victory in style, 1 minute ahead of Vingegaard and 1:50 ahead of Evenepoel.

Once the stage finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways about what happened today.

Great performance by our compatriot Florian Lipowitz. Tactically, it wasn't the smartest move to attack the big favorites for a few kilometers on the penultimate climb (with a maximum lead of 15 seconds), but Lipowitz is still young — and why shouldn't he try? If the legs feel good, why not test them?

On the final climb, amid the onslaught from Pogacar and Vingegaard, he initially stayed hidden behind Remco Evenepoel, only to drop the Belgian once he saw that he couldn’t close the gap to the Slovenian and the Dane.

The question then was whether a very fresh Jorgenson, who had also been riding with Evenepoel, would still be able to catch him. The answer: no. In the end, the young German finished third. He gave up just about ten seconds to Vingegaard and gained nearly a minute on Evenepoel.

And Pogacar? There was simply no stopping him. Vingegaard surprisingly cracked early under Pogacar’s attack, managed to hover around 14 to 16 seconds behind for a few hundred meters, but then collapsed basically and had to give in. Vingegaard, the winged climber, clearly isn’t ready for the Tour just yet. Pogacar is. He cruised over the finish line as the winner. In less than 10 kilometers of climbing, he put a full minute into his Danish rival. Ouch!

This was an exciting day of racing, although of course tension-wise, it was not good that Pogacar has delivered in such ways. One thing we can put aside is the questions over his form, or as has been termed over social media in the past few days, the 'underdog gimmick'.

No, Pogacar is the main favourite to win the Dauphiné, the Tour de France and that's uncontested - whatever happens this weekend won't change that. Visma looked very strong and at the level they desired, but against such a rival there just isn't anything they can do.

The winning attack happened just as I expected, as every single time, Domancy delivers - it's an iconic climb. UAE does not have the pure climbers, and on stage 7 it can make Pogacar's task a little harder, but with Tim Wellens and Jhonatan Narváez Pogacar not only has two brilliant riders for the short climbs, but the team has also fully understood that they can use them for offensive action in this exact style that suits Pogacar.

Perfect tactic, ideal result. The lead is convincing and I think he should be able to win these last two stages as well. Behind, most were within the expectations.

Tadej Pogacar is the best, once again. He has once again proved that, when he is in top form, he is unrivaled. Not Jonas Vingegaard, not Remco Evenepoel, not anyone. UAE Team Emirates XRG did a great job, but the leader has once again shown his best.

It's a bit utopian, but Visma - Lease a Bike, which was in the majority, perhaps should have pulled harder after the Côte du Mont-Saxonnax to prevent Pogacar's teammates from arriving. It was 3 (Ben Tulett, Matteo Jorgenson and Vingegaard himself) vs 2 (Tim Wellens and Pogacar) and ended up being 4 vs 4 with the arrivals of Sepp Kuss on one side and Pavel Sivakov and Jhonatan Narváez on the other.

It was precisely the Ecuadorian who was fundamental to the Slovenian's display. He pulled like a possessed man on the Côte de Daumancy and left alive 3 Visma, 3 UAE and Remco Evenepoel. The yellow jersey was the first to drop, followed by the domestiques, including Jorgenson.

Narváez finished his job and Pogacar was left alone with Vingegaard. He barely lasted a few seconds and left him behind as well. Hard blow for this Critérium du Dauphiné, one of the few prestigious races that Tadej Pogacar has yet to win. But above all, a tough mental blow for the Tour de France.

A stage that made more of a difference than I expected could be an omen for the weekend. Tadej Pogacar gave a demolished response and he wasn't the only one, UAE also did very well, with Narváez and Wellens, contradicting my prediction.

Pogacar didn't even have to get off his bike to take out Vingegaard, he looked like he was racing in anger. It's a great victory, on a climb where he had lost resoundingly, it sounds poetic, it's Pogacar!

As for the Dane, I was hoping he'd limit his losses a bit more, 1 minute on a stage that isn't high mountain... that's a lot of fruit, let's see how he responds tomorrow, individually and collectively.

Evenepoel already looked bad to me in the Kuss attack, and that proved to be the case, he'll still have to polish his form for the Tour. Other highlights for Lipowitz, 3rd in the stage, he's the new youth leader and 3rd overall, he's clearly in the fight for the top 5. Tobias Johannessen also showed good signs, I want to see how he fares in tomorrow's high mountains. And last but not least, Paul Seixas was at it again, firmly in the top 10, come on Paul!

A negative note for Carlos Rodríguez, Lenny Martínez and Santiago Buitrago, the first two could still fight for a top 10 finish, the Colombian has sunk completely.

Visma was outnumbered after the penultimate climb of the day, but the team's tactics once again proved to be poor. On the approach to the last climb of the day, Visma had 3 men to UAE's 2. And who was at the head of the group of favourites? UAE.

Visma should have worked to maintain their superior numbers, but instead they allowed two UAE men to re-enter the group, one of whom would turn out to be crucial: Narváez. It was him who imposed a brutal tempo, offloading Evenepoel and opening the door to Pogacar's attack. At 15 per cent gradient, the Slovenian set a pace that only Vingegaard dared to chase, but only for a short time.

From then on, it was Pogacar pedalling and his rivals trying to limit their losses. When all was said and done, Tadej not only showed that he's physically well, that he's undisputed in the mountains and that the Tour de France can come, but that he's ready.

The critics, who expected blood after the less successful ITT, will have to swallow the things they've said and written. And let's face it, the UAE is far from being the strongest bloc in the Dauphiné. If anyone should be worried, it certainly isn't the world champion.

After the shocking time trial in which Tadej Pogacar lost so much time, today was time for redemption. He had to prove again that there is no better rider than him in the world, to clear up all doubts regarding his shape and to demonstrate that he is the undisputed number 1 favourite to win the Tour de France. And of course he did it.

He launched his attack without getting out of the saddle in a Froome-esque style, I think that is a very interesting detail. He has been doing that this year, focusing on imposing an extremely high but sustained pace rather than short-lived explosive attacks. And it is proving to be very effective.

Jonas Vingegaard tried his best to follow Pogacar but he was simply outclassed. We cannot say he wasn’t ambitious, Visma worked hard during part of the stage and he was looking for the stage, but he is just weaker than Pogacar. In a one vs one in the mountains, Tadej is ahead of him, so he will have to look for alternatives if he wants to have a chance.

I think team tactics will be key, and Jonas has the advantage of Jorgenson, who is significantly better than any other UAE domestique. Visma should come up with a plan to effectively use Jorgenson in order to put pressure on UAE, not just at Dauphiné, but also at the Tour. It might be the only chance they have to contest Pogacar’s tyranny.

Remco Evenepoel disappointed me today. After the team announced he was in the shape of his life and 1.5kg lighter than last year at this point of the season, I was definitely expecting him to perform much better, at least being closer to Vingegaard.

But he was dropped too early and never found his rhythm back. First Lipowitz and then Jorgenson attacked him and he never even tried to react. He lost so much time today, almost 2 minutes to Pogacar in 7km… And I don’t think it will be much better tomorrow or on Sunday.

He was even dropped for a moment during the Côte du Mont Saxonnex and that was due to bad positioning in peloton. It is not the first time his team has failed to adequately protect and position him during an important part of the stage, and this has been very costly for him more than once.

Generally speaking, Evenepoel’s teammates are nowhere near the level of UAE or Visma, so that complicates his aspirations even more. He cannot compete one vs one against Pogacar or Vingegaard because he has never proven to be superior, and he cannot rely on trying something with his team either because it is too weak. During the flat section before the final climb, Pogacar and Vingegaard had at least three teammates while Evenepoel had zero…

Florian Lipowitz deserves his flowers, he rode so bravely today. He didn’t hesitate and tried a long-range attack during Mont Saxonnex, where I was totally convinced that nobody would dare to try anything. Despite spending so much energy with that effort and being caught eventually, he didn’t run out of gas and finished third behind the two aliens, beating Evenepoel by a wide margin.

The young German rider keeps improving every day, and given his current form and the great performances he has put in Itzulia and Paris-Nice this year, I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes to the Tour as a co-leader alongside Roglic instead of as a domestique.

The rest of the top 10 was honestly quite a surprise, formed by young riders that have taken a big step forward and might have a very good chance to finish in the top 10 of the GC on Sunday. Paul Seixas is the most striking case for me, he is just 18 years old! And he is already riding with the best…his future is very bright, arguably the best French prospect.

On the contrary, some of the theoretical GC contenders underperformed, such as Carlos Rodríguez, Lenny Martínez or Santiago Buitrago, while Enric Mas seemed strong before the first climb (he even attacked in the descent, an unprecedented milestone) but exploded in the final one.