Here’s Jeremy Whittle’s report from Longwy.
Tadej Pogacar, the victor and overall leader, speaks.
Every time I win it is even better, the first two ours were so crazy, a lot of teams pulling in the peloton. I was thinking he would come to the finish. The team did an incredible job bringing me to the perfect position. It was not a pure sprint, it was hectic. I guess I had good legs. I am super happy to take the win, anything else is just a bonus.
General classification after stage six
- 1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) 20hrs 44mins 44secs
- 2. Neilson Powless (US/EF Education-EasyPost +4secs
- 3. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo - Visma) +31secs
- 4. Adam Yates (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +39secs
- 5. Tom Pidcock (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +40secs
- 6. Geraint Thomas (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +46secs
- 7. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus/Bora-Hansgrohe) +52secs
- 8. Daniel Martinez (Col/Ineos Grenadiers) +1min
- 9. Romain Bardet (Fra/DSM) 1mins 1secs
- 10. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama/FDJ)
Updated
Stage six result
- 1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) 4hrs 27mins 13secs
- 2. Michael Matthews (Aus/BikeExchange - Jayco) Same time
- 3. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama - FDJ)
- 4. Tom Pidcock (GB/Ineos Grenadiers)
- 5. Nairo Quintana (Col/Arkea Samsic)
- 6. Dylan Teuns (Bel/Bahrain Victorious)
- 7. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma)
- 8. Daniel Martinez (Col/Ineos Grenadiers)
- 9. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Jumbo-Visma)
- 10. Romain Bardet (Fra/DSM)
Updated
Tom Pidcock, speaking to Eurosport: “Roglic went early and caught me by surprise, I think I was decent in the sprint but Pogacar was strongest in the sprint, fair play. Van Aert’s playing with our ball, isn’t he? Taking the piss, isn’t he?”
Did Le Tour’s GC race end here? Pogacar’s seventh stage win was one of his best, and showed that whatever the terrain, he will be around and about. And the mountains to come where he looks to have the legs to hold off anyone’s challenge.
At the end of the longest day, Tadej Pogacar, of course, is the victor. A day that will be recalled for the heroics of Wout van Aert, who controlled the field and led until the final 20km, was still won by a rider who seems impregnable in Le Tour.
🏆 🇸🇮 @TamauPogi wins in Longwy!
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 7, 2022
🏆🇸🇮 @TamauPogi intouchable à @Villedelongwy !#TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/tUNVJCXQ0K
Updated
Tadej Pogacar wins the sixth stage and takes the yellow jersey
With 700m to go, Pogacar is the second man in the field, led by Brandon McNulty, and off they go, Roglic has a dig, and Pogacar speeds away and is untouchable as he goes away, He’s on fire, and Neilson Powless will take yellow, or will it be Pogacar? The bonus seconds should see the defending champion do it.
Updated
1km to go: Tom Pidcock is one of the many riders with a chance. It will come down to a sprint after this climb. So many chances.
1.5km to go: Vuillermoz is going for broke in the final two km, and the chase group has thinned out. The hill will make or break him. It breaks him soon enough, as he is pulled back soon enough, and drops like a stone back into the pack, Nairo Quintana is in there.
3km: Vuillermoz burying himself to stay away, and Primoz Roglic, despite his shoulder problems, is still up there. Great ride from him to be involved.
4km to go: Vuillermoz begins the descent down to the finish, and that last climb, and a turn, and they make their way into Longwy. He’s staying away, and gets into a time trial position as he spins round a bend. Vlasov is still struggling to get back on.
5km to go: Pogacar is up there, and Neilson Powless is in virtual yellow as they make their way up the climb, the Côte de Pulventeux. Thomas looks strong, as they go to the steepest part of the climb. Alexis Vuillermoz of TotalEnergie has a digm and Pogacar goes after him as they summit. He looks back to see what damage he has done. Thomas and Ineos need to give chase.
8km to go: The suggestion is the Jumbo-Visma rider who went down was Sepp Kuss, but as soon as that’s discussed there’s another prang, in the middle of the small town they speed through. Is it Aleksandr Vlasov? It is, and Team Bora must try and get him back on. Plenty of peril out there, lots of road furniture.
10km to go: All to play for now, but Pogacar is sat pretty as the teams get into order in what is left of the peloton.
Van Aert is caught and sits up
11km to go: The crash has caused a split in the peloton, but still Van Aert has been caught, at last, and goes back down the field as soon as they catch up. The yellow jersey will be worn by someone else tonight. He’s gone completely, taking on fluids as he slows down.
Updated
12km to go: Van Aert still leads at the descent and looks back at the field as he speeds downhill. Oh dear, there’s been a crash out the side! Two from Jumbo-Visma have gone. Reinardt Janse van Rensburg of Lotto-Sudal was involved. We will await news of any serious casualties as they fly along, and towards another climb.
14km to go: Chris Goldsmith gets in touch: “Quinn Simmons may be a Trumper, but he gave my partner a push up one of the hills on the Harrogate World Championship course when she was doing the sportif before it started. She will be forever thankful! Van Aert is something unbelievable.”
15km to go: Van Aert grimaces as he continues to lead them up the hill. The back of the field sees Van der Poel, as expected, spat from the back. Magnus Cort has also gone. Pogacar is safe and sound up there. Van Aert takes the single climbing point on that Cat 4 climb.
Updated
16km to go: Even Van Aert may struggle to stay away, though the four successive climbs before the end will dictate whether he can or not. Should he get pulled back, it’s possible he ends the day not in yellow but in green as he leads the sprinters’ points. The first climb is the Côte de Montigny-sur-Chiers.
Updated
20km to go: At the front of the peloton, it’s a Brit trio of Tom Pidcock, Geraint Thomas and Adam Yates are prominent for the Ineos team, as Filippo Ganna, their foremost man in the pack for the last few km, drops off, having done his turn. Van Aert’s being whittled down to around 50 seconds.
Updated
25km to go: Van Aert sails on, the gap at 1’ 08” as he blasts on.
💛 @WoutvanAert has dropped @QuinnSimmons9.
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 7, 2022
It's now van Aert 🆚 the peloton
💛 @WoutvanAert a distancé @QuinnSimmons9.
Nous avons à présent un duel van Aert 🆚 le peloton.#TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/KQ0eLozHAO
Updated
Van Aert drops Simmons and goes it alone
28km to go: Quinn Simmons has gone, he was unable to take a turn off the front and Van Aert has decided to take it up and go it alone. The gap suddenly opens up once more. He looks in good form, ready to try and land the solo victory.
Updated
30km to go: The Meuse river is to their flank as the time gap starts to descend to not much more of a minute. Van Aert will surely jettison Simmons soon enough. The American is struggling to hold his wheel while the peloton has plenty of zips. Nils Politt, the German rider for Bora–Hansgrohe, drops off the back, having done a mighty turn up the front. It’s not been an easy day for the domestiques, pulling them along like an engine.
With an average speed of 49.9km/h in the first 180km, @QuinnSimmons9 and @WoutvanAert enjoyed a lead as high as 4'01'' (km 109) but the gap is now down to 1'10'' #TDFdata #TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/RzRMcdptKX
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 7, 2022
Updated
35km to go: Interesting suggestion from Matt Cast: “I think Van Aert is in the breakaway to save his team from having to do any work to keep the yellow jersey after their nightmare day yesterday. Either that or he was told that his team wouldn’t be working for him today and decided that his best chance of defending his jersey was to get out in front himself, the potential alternative being a strong group getting out and a peloton too fatigued to chase it.”
Nice to have someone with such strength in your team. Jumbo-Visma can count themselves lucky to have the use of such a superman.
40km to go: The gap starts dropping a tad, the tailwind benefitting the peloton. Fireworks ahead whatever happens. This could be a big day on GC before we even get to the proper hills. Simmons looks tired, while Van Aert doesn’t.
45km to go: But can Van Aert stay away? Fugslang’s ablutions seem to have energised his former compadres in the breakaway. Quinn Simmons, a former ski mountaineering, seems game enough, and happy to go blow for blow on the front.
Where have you heard the name Quinn Simmons before? Perhaps here. Per Cycling News in 2021.
Trek-Segafredo suspended Simmons following his response to a post on Twitter by a cycling journalist ahead of the US election last year between Donald Trump and current US President Joe Biden. The journalist asked supporters of Trump to stop following her on Twitter. Simmons responded by writing “bye”, followed by an emoji of a Black hand waving. When Simmons was referred to as a “Trumper” in a reply, he responded: “That’s right” with an emoji of an American flag.
50km to go: Despite those undulations, they continue to speed along, with under an hour of racing to go, and a tailwind behind them. The gap remains at just under two minutes but the peloton, Pogacar resplendent, are fully in control.
Updated
60km to go: And now the undulations begin on a stage that has already been ridden at a breakneck pace.
To quote the Cycling News Forum, a wealth of info on Le Tour’s stages, this is how it should play out.
By this time the route has started to turn away from the Meuse to stay close to the Belgian border, and the terrain slowly becomes more rugged again as we pass the citadel of Montmédy. The final 20 kilometres feature four hills, starting with the Côte de Montigny-sur-Chiers and the harder, but uncategorised Côte de Lexy. These are the climbs to thin out the bunch, but Côte de Pulventeux, just 5.3k from the line, should see attacks. The briefest of flats and a descent down two hairpins brings us to the bottom of the final climb, Côte des Religieuses.
Located on the borders with Belgium and Luxembourg, Longwy was originally a small town that was built into a sizeable citadel by Vauban. It became the centre of the French steel industry in the 19th century, however after the plants shut down in the 1970s the town experienced a significant economic downturn and today it is mainly a commuter town for Luxembourg.
65km to go: Fugslang’s decided he wants no part in the breakaway, and he does so in unorthodox style, pulling up at the side of the road to, well, follow nature’s course. He and Van Aert had been in discussion, and that may have been part of it. With the gap dropping below two minutes, the dynamic duo at the front have no hope of staying away. Is Van Aert done for the day? Probably not.
Van Aert takes the intermediate sprint
Not much of a race though Van Aert didn’t look too chuffed with being chased by Simmons and Fuglsang. So, even if Van Aert doesn’t win the stage, he’s banked some valuable sprint points. And in the chase that follows, Philpsen edges Jakobsen, ducking at the line after overtaking Laporte.
💚 20 points for @WoutvanAert at the intermediate sprint.
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 7, 2022
💚 20 points de plus pour @WoutvanAert au sprint intermédiaire.#TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/6O6hTDo7SS
It's 🇧🇪 @JasperPhilipsen who rounds off the sprint as first in the peloton!
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 7, 2022
Derrière le trio de tête, 🇧🇪 @JasperPhilipsen règle le peloton au sprint intermédiaire !#TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/dYOVQuNBzy
Updated
75km to go: David Hindle, once more: “The thing you must never forget is that a 3 week stage race can see many favourites forced out due to accidents or illness. So for Wout, you just never know. If he is leading and suddenly Pogacar and a few more retired, he may hang on and win it. He might well be able to hold off the second tier, if that’s all that is left to race against. It is very unpredictable and always worth keeping up, just in case. But actually, the peloton were brutal and very quickly organised today. Never let them properly get away and this breakaway is done with 20 km to go. Tom Pid is very well placed again for the stage!”
It does look as if Van Aert’s grand plan will not work today, but he will roll through the intermediate sprint to take the full points on offer for the green jersey, his stated aim this year. The word is the riders are 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Peter Sagan, at the back of the peloton, goes back for help, and probably won’t be competing for the minor sprinting points.
80km to go: The gap is at 2’ 47” and Van Aert and his two mates are taking on fluids to they got hold of in the feed zone.
90km to go: There’s a chase on, and the gap is lowering, with Pogacar’s group back in the peloton, and the gap at three minutes, the big teams all taking their turn.
Updated
95km to go: James Austin has a suggestion: “if Wout could get a lead of 7 or 8 mins I suspect he may just be able to hold onto GC. But it’d need to be that level - while he won from the break on Ventoux riding with the elite group in the bunch day after day is a very different thing.”
Alex Kirsch, the Trek Segafredo rider on his first Tour, has abandoned.
❌ @alexkirsch92 abandons
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 7, 2022
❌ Abandon de @alexkirsch92#TDF2022
100km: Pete Anon gets in touch: “And another question from someone who has just started road racing this year..
“My question is could Van Aert win the Tour outright? The bookies don’t give him much chance of the outright win...is this because Van Aert will be crushed in the mountains? If so is it possible that a rider like Van Aert could defy the bookies and perform in the mountains and win it outright? By extension is there precedent for a non favourite to take yellow in week 1 and keep yellow all the way to Paris?”
The suggestion from the experts is that he’s not got the physique for it, possessing too much muscle, that required for Classic and sprints, to haul himself up the great hills, though he has won on Mont Ventoux. Winning a Tour from the first week and holding on? I will throw that to the floor, but Laurent Fignon, in 1983, pulled off a shock win as a non-contender who came from the pack, but never led from the start. Geraint Thomas was a shock, too, but only because Chris Froome cracked in 2018. As I say, suggestions very welcome.
The gap is opening up, at 3’ 53” from the leading trio to the Pogacar group.
Updated
110km to go: Van Aert’s been the man of the first 100km, but he’s up against a young American on a mission in Quinn Simmons. Van Aert, is also on a new bike now, having changed at 111km to go, that dodgy derailleur forgotten as he chases his two mates in the breakaway. He soon catches them up.
The most active rider of stage 6?
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 7, 2022
💛@WoutvanAert has been everywhere, following, making and breaking moves in the first 80km#TDFdata #TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/AUc0YRb2KD
Participating in his first @LeTour at 21 years old, @QuinnSimmons9 is on the hunt for stage 🏆
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 7, 2022
His move on stage 6 sees him lead the way to the first summit of the day... at a higher pace than the @Strava KOM held by @adria_moreno #TDFdata #TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/ziJyUtK56J
120km to go: David Hindle has had a rethink: “I wrote the last email just before this break formed. If Van Aert has it in his head he can do this and given the quality of the other two, stage profile, wind etc., the winner is amongst them now. That’s the way races go. You could pull back a “normal” group of 3. But not one made of Van Aert, Simmons, Fuglsang. This isn’t any kind of “normal”. Very exciting though. Reminds me a bit of recent test cricket! In which case, would INEOS be the pre-bazball version of England?”
Van Aert is leading them down the descent, and flying along. The intrigue continues on what has been a highly exciting stage.
125km to go: Keith Pattinson emails in: “A question from a non-expert. Are the breakaways planned by the teams before the start? Or are the riders given license to make the breaks on a temperamental basis?”
Answer: yes, mostly, and usually but events, dear boy. In fact, many attacks will be planned months in advance when the stages are announced. But, say, today, Van Der Poel will have pinpointed it, but has no legs. And certain riders just attack all the time, like Pierre Rolland, which is good for the sponsors to have their logo up the front.
The gap is 3’ 20” to Pogacar, almost five minutes to the peloton. Simmons and Fulgslang are chatting away quite merrily with Van Aert, who seems unruffled by his bike problems, because, well, he is Van Aert.
Van Aert in three-man breakaway
132km to go: Hang on! Van Aert, at the foot of this first climb, of around 2km, the Cote dez Mazures, suddenly suffers a problem. He has to get off his bike, and then is given a hand to fix his gears derailleur.. He’s 20 seconds down on Simmons and Fuglsang, but then makes it to the back of them. They realised they needed his strength to stay away up this hill. The peloton meanwhile doesn’t seem to bothered about giving chase. Simmons leads them over the first third-category climb of Le Tour. The lead of opened to around 2’ 13”.
Updated
135km to go: David Hindle has a prediction to make: “Pidcock should really fancy this stage. A lot of people completely focused on Van Aert, and understandable why. But Tom Pid has bested him in a classic despite coming “second”, before (actually that was an interesting story). And for the Olympic mountain bike champion, that kind of explosive, uphill finish is made to measure. So Tom Pid to beat Van Aert by slightly more than 1/1000th of a second.”
They may need to chase down what has become a larger gap. Jakob Fuglsang and Quinn Simmons are on his tail.
Updated
140km to go: And Wout van Aert is in the breakaway, it’s very windy, and they are being blown all over the place. This one may actually stay away, and those at the back of the peloton are suffering, Hirschi and Bennett continuing to suffer off the back.
150km to go: As predicted, the breakaway didn’t last. So back we go, looking for one to hold. It might be a while.
160km to go: This breakaway looks to be failing, too, falling to Van Aert’s bidding, Pogacar sat well, of course. Van der Poel and Michael Mørkøv are sat out the back of the peloton, as are George Bennett and Marc Hirschi, two of Pog’s key domestiques. This is a hard day to follow a hard day.
Updated
165km to go: Sagan and Van Aert up the front as the peloton chases what is not much of a breakaway, with Magnus Cort, the hero of Le Tour’s weekend in Denmark, in a group of nine. Mads Pedersen, Christophe Laporte and Simon Geschke are all involved in that, but it won’t be lasting too long if Van Aert continues to pull the chasing pack on his back. Once he drops back in the pack, it goes to 20 seconds of a gap. The speed is ludicrous, and it’s no place for hiding.
175km to go: The breakaway is on, but this time it includes GC contenders, Pogacar, Pidcock, Thomas, Van Aert, Adam Yates and Jonas Vingegaard. There’s a split in the pack that looks as if it has the manpower to escape but then it’s pulled back together, as they ride over some sweeping hills, plenty of bends. This is relentless so far. No chance of a rest before they join the mountain stages tomorrow.
180km to go: Wellens and Jansen get pulled back into the pack and the leading trio don’t survive much longer, as Van Aert leads the chase, then eases off as Wellens has another go off the front as Cosnefoy, Van der Hoorn and Skujins come into view. Van Aert is up there, of course, as is Pogacar, with Geraint Thomas attempting to stay in touch. Then Van Aert goes off on another dig. There’s a wind, and he’s trying to use it to split the pack. He has repeated digs.
190 km to go: Tim Wellens of Lotto-Soudal is chasing down the three breakaways, and Amund Grøndahl Jansen of Bike Exchange has joined the chase, the peloton continuing to loom behind him, that man Van Aert piling it on, taking it up. They are a minute behind the trio at the front, and then 49 seconds behind Wellens, who has joined forces with Jansen.
Updated
200 km to go: Pogacar is at the back of a split in the field, with Van Aert suddenly at the fore of a leading group that is peeling away in the style of a Classic race. The race is kicking off already. Incredible, after what happened yesterday. They eventually come back together, though finally someone manages to get away, three riders take ten seconds off the front, a fourth trying to join them. The three that have gone away are Benoit Cosnefoy, Taco van der Hoorn and Toms Skujins, but there’s a group including Van Aert and Sagan who are chasing them down. There’s 35 riders off the front in total, and the rest must chase all day.
210km to go: Still they attempt to stage breakaways, with Wout van Aert to the fore but Matthieu van der Poel, as said previously, not looking too handy. He’s off the back of the peloton already. Burgaudeau’s shorts meanwhile are cut to ribbons. Pogacar is handy, too. They have to alert already, and they are speeding along, stragglers being spat out the back.
217 km to go: An early faller, and there’s a few of them forced off the side of the road. Just one goes down fully, and that’s, Mathieu Burgaudeau of TotalEnergies, who eventually gets fixed up, and speeds back to the pack. He looks only a little bashed up.
Updated
And away we go!
Christian Prudhomme waves them along on the longest ride of Le Tour, and off go a couple of riders in an early breakaway. Action right from the start, with Alexis Vuillermoz of TotalEnergies leading out a huge break that doesn’t last very long. Too many teams getting away quickly for that to survive.
The cobbles claimed a few victims, including the key lieutenant to Peter Sagan.
“Additional examinations revealed a fracture of a cervical vertebra requiring immobilization for a few weeks. Daniel Oss is therefore forced to leave the Tour de France… The whole team wishes you a good recovery Daniel.”
Oss crashed into a spectator on the cobbles and actually finished the stage.
The other two forced to abandon were Michael Gogl (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Jack Haig, of Bahrain Victorious, who abandoned last year, too
Les examens complémentaires ont mis en évidence une fracture d’une vertèbre cervicale nécessitant une immobilisation pour quelques semaines. Daniel Oss est donc contraint de quitter le Tour de France… 😢
— Team TotalEnergies (@TeamTotalEnrg) July 6, 2022
Toute l’équipe te souhaite un bon rétablissement Daniel ❤️ pic.twitter.com/jGh0D2HOo7
We’re not far from the start of the race proper in Binche, and the riders are making their way through the streets to the départ reel, as they take part in the départ fictif.
✍️ The signature podium is almost finished here in 🇧🇪Binche, it's nearly time to race 🏁
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 7, 2022
✍️Le podium signature est terminé à 🇧🇪Binche, c'est bientôt l'heure du départ ! 🏁#TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/YFyPUyfW8C
Updated
Here’s a couple of takes on Wednesday’s events on the cobbles.
With Jumbo-Visma’s leader Primoz Roglic spreadeagled on the road, the Slovenian double Tour winner made hay after his compatriot had been taken down by a roadside bale, designed to steer the riders safely through a roundabout. Even the seemingly super-powered Wout van Aert, winner of stage four, crashed, and was called on to try and help his embattled team leaders, Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard, recover lost ground.
Van Aert’s efforts were enough to pull Vingegaard back to the front, but not Roglic, who lost more than two minutes to the UAE Emirates rider. “Just a shit day,” Van Aert said succinctly, even though he did enough to hang on to the race leader’s yellow jersey.
It was an amazing result for Clarke, who wondered if he had reached the end of his career last winter when he was left without a team.
“To have Israel ring me up and say, ‘We’ll give you that chance,’ just gives you such a reality check to make the most of every opportunity,” said Clarke.
“All year this season, I’ve come out in every race swinging.
“I still can’t believe I got it on the line there. Taco was well ahead of me with less than 50 metres to go. I was cramping in both legs and I just lined up the biggest throw I could possibly do and I just prayed it was enough.
“I need to watch the replay, I still don’t quite believe it!
“I moved to Europe when I was 16 – and I turn 36 on the second rest day [18 July]. That’s 20 years in Europe and the dream finally came true!”
Preamble
The Tour is the Tour, as we found on Wednesday on the cobbles, though what that usually means is that Tadej Pogacar survives when all others fall apart. That’s what happened yesterday, as Wout van Aert tried his best to save his team leaders and buried himself even if he did stay in yellow, though disaster befell Primoz Roglic as he dislocated and then reset his own shoulder. Such is life on the cobbles, and to follow up, we have the longest stage of the Tour. The riders must be delighted to follow on from the carnage of Wednesday. They will be speeding along all day, and then a nasty climb not far from the flamme rouge.
Per William Fotheringham:
The longest stage of the race has a twist in the tail: the Côte de Pulventeux comes 6km from the finish, and is 800m at 12%, so steep enough to split the field before the finish up the longer, draggier, Côte des Religieuses. It is a finish made for any of the overall contenders, but all eyes will be on Van der Poel with Julian Alaphilippe absent.
Van der Poel didn’t look in such good nick yesterday, so that opens up the contenders.
GC after stage five
1) Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma): 16 hr 17’ 22”
2) Neilson Powless (EF Education-Easypost) +13”
3) Edvald Boasson Hagen (TotalEnergies) +14”
4) Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) +19”
5) Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) +25”
6) Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) +36”
7) Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma)
8) Adam Yates (Ineos) +48”
9) Tom Pidcock (Ineos) +49”
10) Geraint Thomas (Ineos) +50”
