Tadej Pogačar crossed the Col du Tourmalet first on stage six of the 2026 Tour de France to win the Souvenir Jacques Goddet.
The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider pushed on alone 4.1km from the top of the hors categorie climb on Thursday, after initially attacking with his teammate Isaac del Toro.
Pogačar was chased by his rival Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) over the top of the Pyrenean climb, but he had an advantage of around 30 seconds by the time the Tourmalet was summited. He also had almost a minute and a half on a group containing Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
The award is given yearly for the rider to reach the top of the Tourmalet first, along with a €5,000 cash prize, and 20 points in the mountains competition. It's the first time Pogačar has won the prize, although the Slovenian has won three stages which have included the climb.
Interestingly, the prize has never been won by a rider who has gone on to win the race, showing how remarkable Pogačar's attack on the climb was.
On Thursday, with the Tourmalet 38.5km from the finish, Pogačar looked in an excellent position to win stage six, which would be his second of the race. With yellow jersey Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility) over seven minutes behind the leader on the road, it also looked like the Slovenian was heading into yellow.
This early in the race, it looked like he was putting his stamp on proceedings, with 15 stages still to come. The second-category climb to Gavarnie-Gèdre (18.7km at 3.7%) was still to come after the Tourmalet.
More to follow...
