Wrist injury or no wrist injury, Tadej Pogacar is unlikely to ever back down. After losing time in the first Pyrenean stage to Laruns, the Slovenian came out fighting on stage six of the Tour de France, a mountain finish to Cauterets-Cambasque, throwing down the gauntlet to the defending champion, Jonas Vingegaard.
In what was his 10th stage win in the Tour and yet another virtuoso solo attack from the 2020 and 2021 victor, Pogacar justified the belief that, despite his long lay-off, he will get better as the race goes on.
Afterwards, buoyed by reaching double figures in stage wins, he joked: “I’m coming for you Mark Cavendish! It’s a bit cocky to say that, but I’m happy to have just one stage win. Today I was just as happy as when I first won three years ago.”
The pendulum that seemed to be swinging inexorably in favour of last year’s winner has now begun to move back towards Pogacar. But the 24-year-old dismissed talk of his win as revenge. “It’s good to win today and take back some time,” he said. “I feel a little bit of relief and feel much better now.”
Pogacar’s success was the result of a shock attack on Vingegaard, just under 4km from the finish at the Cambasque mountain resort.
Unable to respond to the UAE Emirates rider’s violent acceleration, the Dane was compensated by his first yellow jersey of this year’s race and a pat on the back from the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
“I’m super-happy to be back in the maillot jaune,” Vingegaard said. “I hoped to stay with Tadej but he was really strong on the last climb, so he deserved to win.”
Jumbo-Visma’s team leader benefited from some stellar support on his way to his latest yellow jersey, with both of his teammates, Wout van Aert and Sepp Kuss, giving their all on the towering climb of the Col du Tourmalet.
“I was thinking when they started pulling on the Tourmalet: ‘Shit, if it’s going to happen like yesterday we can pack our bags and go home,’” Pogacar said. “Luckily I had good legs today and could follow on the Tourmalet quite comfortably. I just put myself in the right position, ready to go, but like I said, I was hanging on for dear life.”
While Vingegaard and his teammates stuck to their plan, Pogacar, bereft of help in the closing kilometres, was having to improvise. “You can have plan A, plan B, plan C – the whole alphabet – and a hundred different things can happen,” said the stage winner. “In cycling it’s so difficult to follow the tactics because there are so many circumstances you can’t predict.”
As the peloton exits the Pyrenees, the pair look closely matched, with just 25 seconds separating them. “I guess it will be an exciting Tour this year,” Vingegaard noted, deadpan.
While Pogacar and Vingegaard moved ahead on the penultimate climb, the overnight race leader, Bora-Hansgrohe’s Jai Hindley wilted. After less than 24 hours in the yellow jersey, Hindley’s hopes went south as the leading groups rode past the ski station at La Mongie, 4km from the top of the giant climb of Tourmalet. The Australian managed to fight back on the long descent that followed, limiting his deficit to Vingegaard to just 1min 34sec at the finish, with Simon Yates fourth overall a further 1min 40sec back.
“That was just an epic day riding round in the yellow jersey and doing some mythical climbs,” Hindley said. “To be honest, I got my arse handed to me, but really enjoyed it.”
Vingegaard appeared as enthused about President Macron as many in the crowd. Asked what the head of state had said to him he struggled to recall, before responding: “He said it was nice to see me again – I think he remembered me from last year.”
Pogacar dedicated his stage win to his partner, Urska Zigart, who was forced to abandon the women’s Giro d’Italia, the Giro Donne, after crashing and suffering a concussion. “Of course, today she was already at home not racing. She gave me all the power,” he said. “This one was for her.”
