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Tadej Pogacar delivered a statement victory over the Tourmalet as he retook the yellow jersey on stage six of the Tour de France on Thursday.
Pogacar attacked with a little over four kilometres left of the 17-kilometre climb over the Pyrenean giant, 43km from the end of the stage, and rode clear of his rival Jonas Vingegaard down the descent and up the final climb into Gavarnie-Gedre.
The UAE Team Emirates-XRG star took the stage by two minutes 38 seconds from Vingegaard, the 17th time the pair have shared the top two places of a Tour stage, reclaiming yellow from Torstein Traeen and opening up a commanding advantage after starting the day on the same time as Vingegaard.
Traeen, who took yellow on Tuesday, had hoped to carry the jersey into the second week but was distanced less than halfway up the Tourmalet. The advantage of seven minutes 53 seconds the Norwegian held at the start had already disappeared before a crash on the descent piled on the pain.
But nobody could have competed with Pogacar on this form. Midway up the Tourmalet the Slovenian, targeting a record-equalling fifth Tour title and third in a row, confidently told the team radio: “I’m good guys, I’m good.”
Rivals teams, hearing that, would have known what was coming before he launched his decisive attack.
“I woke up at seven o’clock this morning and already my mind was going crazy, I was really, really excited for today,” said Pogacar, who said he ranked this victory in the top five of his 23 career Tour stage wins.
“All the guys were really hyped and I knew it would be good. We just committed, like nothing to lose. If we explode we explode but in the end we succeeded and I’m super proud, it was crazy teamwork.”
Fear of what Pogacar might do was perhaps behind the tactics of Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike squad, who burned resources earlier in the day in a bid to get satellite riders up the road to no avail and paid a price.
“It was very tough today, not the day I wanted but that’s how it is sometimes,” said Vingegaard, who is seeking a rare Giro d’Italia-Tour double.
“I still believe in myself, I still believe my legs will get better. The fight is not over.”
Pogacar’s team-mate Isaac del Toro sits third overall, three minutes 27 seconds back, after taking third on the day just ahead of Remco Evenepoel, who is fourth overall, a further three seconds back.
Continue reading...
Pogacar attacked with a little over four kilometres left of the 17-kilometre climb over the Pyrenean giant, 43km from the end of the stage, and rode clear of his rival Jonas Vingegaard down the descent and up the final climb into Gavarnie-Gedre.
The UAE Team Emirates-XRG star took the stage by two minutes 38 seconds from Vingegaard, the 17th time the pair have shared the top two places of a Tour stage, reclaiming yellow from Torstein Traeen and opening up a commanding advantage after starting the day on the same time as Vingegaard.
Traeen, who took yellow on Tuesday, had hoped to carry the jersey into the second week but was distanced less than halfway up the Tourmalet. The advantage of seven minutes 53 seconds the Norwegian held at the start had already disappeared before a crash on the descent piled on the pain.
But nobody could have competed with Pogacar on this form. Midway up the Tourmalet the Slovenian, targeting a record-equalling fifth Tour title and third in a row, confidently told the team radio: “I’m good guys, I’m good.”
Rivals teams, hearing that, would have known what was coming before he launched his decisive attack.
“I woke up at seven o’clock this morning and already my mind was going crazy, I was really, really excited for today,” said Pogacar, who said he ranked this victory in the top five of his 23 career Tour stage wins.
“All the guys were really hyped and I knew it would be good. We just committed, like nothing to lose. If we explode we explode but in the end we succeeded and I’m super proud, it was crazy teamwork.”
Fear of what Pogacar might do was perhaps behind the tactics of Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike squad, who burned resources earlier in the day in a bid to get satellite riders up the road to no avail and paid a price.
“It was very tough today, not the day I wanted but that’s how it is sometimes,” said Vingegaard, who is seeking a rare Giro d’Italia-Tour double.
“I still believe in myself, I still believe my legs will get better. The fight is not over.”
Pogacar’s team-mate Isaac del Toro sits third overall, three minutes 27 seconds back, after taking third on the day just ahead of Remco Evenepoel, who is fourth overall, a further three seconds back.
Continue reading...
