"Maybe Visma wanted to give me the yellow jersey" - Tadej Pogacar caught by surprise by rival team on tricky Tour day
Cycling
Tadej Pogacar has spent today in the yellow jersey at the Tour de France, but just as quickly as he obtained it he's also given it away to Mathieu van der Poel. However this was only by 1 second, and the Slovenian didn't understand what Team Visma | Lease a Bike were up to on stage 6 which finished in Vire Normandie.
"At the end, Visma wanted… Yeah, I don't know what they were trying to do. They were going fast, so we just followed. The start and the first two hours were very, very tough. Really incredibly fast," the Slovenian admitted.
The World Champion and UAE came under attack from a Visma that had Wout van Aert, Tiesj Benoot and Victor Campenaerts all try to get in the breakaway; Matteo Jorgenson attack to which Pogacar had to respond directly instead of waiting for the team to do the chasing; and lastly Simon Yates getting in the front group.
"We survived those two hours well, and then we decided whether or not we were going for the stage win. Then we decided not to use our bullets and rode at our own pace. Nils [Politt] and Marc [Soler], and the rest of the team, did their job".
The team had Nils Politt in the head of the peloton all day but did not chase hard so as to let the gap grow and allow Mathieu van der Poel to take the yellow jersey, hence taking away the responsibility to lead the peloton and also reduce post-stage ceremonies - which in the long-term can aid with the recovery process.
"Then Visma came." The Dutch team, perhaps in an effort to keep Pogacar in the race lead and not allow him this breather, pushed the pace quite hard in the final kilometers and reduced the gap substantially. Pogacar lost the race lead by a mere second.
"They went full throttle on the last two kickers. Maybe they had information that Van der Poel was losing time at the front and was struggling. Maybe Visma wanted to give me the yellow jersey today," he wonders.
"But in the end, Mathieu beat me by a second, so hats off to him. It was a fantastic performance from him today. The early breakaway did really well at the front today. All credit to them." Tomorrow on the Mur-de-Bretagne however it may change hands once again, taking into consideration specially how the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider looked on the final kilometers of the stage.
"I don't mind having the yellow jersey. But as I said, the goal was to expend as little energy as possible today. Tomorrow is another good finish for me. After that, we also need the legs for the second and third weeks. What we did today was very good of us."
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Tadej Pogacar sprints to the finish, but it's not enough to keep the yellow jersey 👀
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) July 10, 2025
Mathieu van der Poel re-takes the race lead at the Tour de France 💛 pic.twitter.com/BQAsdCN6tD
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
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Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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- More to the point, it isn't his remaining goal.Renz08-11-2026
- lol yeahmij08-11-2026
- I know, their headlines can be so misleading. Pidcock had a great season with 5 wins. and some solid 2nds. no reason to take away from that with a fake headline.mij08-11-2026
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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