What a day the
Tour de France has given fans today, all-out action from far away and another turn of tables, as
Tadej Pogacar has shown his best level and won stage 6, whilst taking back time on Jonas Vingegaard at the same time.
"This is not revenge, but it's good to win and take time. I feel relieved and a lot better, so that's great," Pogacar said in the flash interview. After the Dane's time gains on stage 5 there was the sense Jumbo-Visma would try and attack today again, and that proved correct. At the Col du Tourmalet the Dutch team went all-out, setting up an attack that only Pogacar could follow.
"When they rode the Tourmalet, I thought: shit, if it's like this again, we can pack our bags and go home. But I felt good and was able to keep up with the pace, after which I was even able to pull away on the final climb. That's great," he says.
In the more explosive climb to Cauterets, after Jumbo-Visma did all the work, the Slovenian had the legs to put in a dig of his won. With just under 3 kilometers to go he launched himself with no response into the head of the race, and won his first stage of this year's edition: "It went almost perfectly, so it will be a very big fight until the last day."
The gains at the end of the day were meaningful, 24 seconds on the road to Vingegaard, 2;39 minutes on Jai Hindley who led the rest of the GC fight. “I want to dedicate my victory to Urska after her crash on Wednesday. She is already home and she has given me all her strength. This victory is for her."
His 10th stage win, he jokes: "I'm coming for you Mark. No kidding, we know that's a long way off." At the start of stage 7 Pogacar will be in second place, only 25 seconds behind Jonas Vingegaard after the first set of mountain stages.