Just a day after seemingly being on the ropes, Tadej Pogačar is suddenly back in the fight for victory at the 2023 Tour de France. Jonas Vingegaard took the yellow jersey from Jai Hindley but Pogačar’s gutsy solo attack and win at Cauterets-Cambasque on stage 6 was a clear warning that the Dane and his Jumbo-Visma team can expect a fight all the way to Paris.
“I was not dead yesterday, I still went quite good. Of course, I’m super happy for today. I played it smart today,” Pogačar said.
“I think the shape is coming along every day. We must not give up, and we will ride like this to the end. It’s still going to be a big fight.”
Pogačar finished 24 seconds ahead of Vingegaard and gained four more seconds thanks to the time bonuses. He is now just 25 seconds down in the general classification, with Hindley dropping to third at 1:34.
Pogačar was on a high after his tenth stage win at the Tour de France and his fightback, joking that he was going after Mark Cavendish’s and Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 wins.
“I’m actually just really happy to have just one stage win. It’s something incredible to have a stage win at the Tour de France. Today I was just as happy as when I won three years ago. It’s always special to win in the Tour,” Pogačar said.
It’s easy to forget that Pogačar is still only 24 and still learning how to race and win Grand Tours. He mistakenly chased down a number of early attacks on stage 5 on the road out of Pau but then missed the move when Hindley, Van Aert and others joined the break and it made for a hard day on the front for his UAE Team Emirates teammates.
On the mighty Col du Tourmalet, Pogačar was stronger and smarter.
“When Jumbo started pulling on the Tourmalet I was thinking, ‘Okay, if it’s the same as yesterday, then we can almost pack the bags and go home,’” Pogačar said.
“But I just kept telling myself I need to hold onto the wheel and not give up until the top, then it would be just me, Jonas and Wout for the last climb. If I lost the wheel there, it would be a bit more problematic. I was happy that I had good legs on the Tourmalet.”
Pogačar’s love for racing aggressively and often on instinct can be successful, but he has learnt he has to adapt his strategy to specific circumstances. He fought to hold Vingegaard’s wheel on the Col du Tourmalet but sensed he had to attack on the climb to the finish.
“I was thinking about attacking for the last four kilometres,” Pogačar said of his natural instinct.
“But I got told on the radio to follow Jonas and race smart. But racing smart would be going even earlier, but I was suffering all the way to the finish line.
“I don’t regret going at that moment. It was just enough, maybe if I went earlier maybe I would explode on the flat part or something. It was a good day, I tried to feel the race. You need to have balls to attack in the end.
“You can have Plan A, B, C, D, E, F... even the whole alphabet. You can have plans, and anything can happen. Racing is really difficult.
“Yesterday we also had a plan, but we totally missed it. Today, Jumbo didn’t miss the plan, but they tried it, and they didn’t succeed, because in cycling it’s so difficult to follow the tactics. There are so many circumstances you need to think about. And it’s difficult to predict if it’s going to work or not. That’s cycling”
