After just one day in the high mountains of the Tour de France, Tadej Pogačar was already almost out of sight on GC, completely destroying the field en route to Gavarnie-Gèdre alongside his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates, as they executed a plan the World Champion was so excited about that he woke up early.
Sleep and recovery are vital for the riders on the Tour, especially for those taking aim at the yellow jersey, but with 4100 metres of elevation gain and the first two big climbs of this year’s race to come on stage 6, Pogačar was like a child at Christmas on Thursday morning.
And it had the build-up to match, with the excitement growing among UAE’s riders on Wednesday evening, knowing that this would be a big chance to exercise their authority over Jonas Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike as well as the rest of their rivals.
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“Already yesterday, after the stage, we were all on the bus driving to the hotel, and we talked about it,” explained Pogačar in his post-stage press conference. “We were like ‘OK, let’s go all in, what’s the worst that can happen?’. You can blow up a little bit, but we knew that we were a strong team.
“We commit to one plan and whatever happens, happens, because we have Isaac [del Toro] and me who are really good on GC.
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“So then I went to sleep, woke up way too early today at seven in the morning, and I couldn’t sleep long because I was so excited for today. I chilled a bit in the room, went to breakfast, saw the guys, they were all hyped, did carbo loading, and had good coffees.
“I don’t know how to explain it, but the energy in the air was perfect. The race went perfectly for us, actually; the breakaway couldn’t go for almost two hours, so that brought us closer to the climbs, and then we could really do what we planned. Every teammate was just incredible; they are crazy good guys and super happy to realise this hype that we had the last two days.”
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As Pogačar was launched by Isaac del Toro on the slopes of the Tourmalet and left everyone, riding the last 43km solo, he didn’t completely crack Vingegaard at the first time of asking, who was sitting at around a 10-second gap for much of the last 4km. But as the kilometres ticked by and Vingegaard’s facial expression became filled with more and more visible pain, the gap began to eke out, and Pogačar was able to start the long downhill with a comfortable 30-second lead.
Stage winner and race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) recovers after winning stage 6 (Image credit: Getty Images)
He spoke post-race of how his mind went back to stage 6 of the 2023 race, which followed a similar route, albeit with a different finishing climb to Cauterets-Cambasque, where the Slovenian felt the pain of the broken wrist he’d suffered that April when Vingegaard called on satellite rider Wout van Aert to up the pace on the descent off the Tourmalet.
Pogačar was hoping to avoid any kind of repeat, although he did win on that day too, pushing himself to the limit to try and blow up Vingegaard before the downhill.
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“It was a similar stage in 2023; we did the same downhill, it was Wout van Aert, Jonas and me, and I remember how Jonas was even pushing Wout to go even faster in the downhill,” said Pogačar.
“I remember I was still a bit with a broken hand and not so comfortable, so I was almost dropping, and it was really crazy. I had these flashbacks that I was thinking if Jonas comes fresh to the top and is only 20 seconds, he for sure catches me on the downhill because of how good he was descending there.
“But maybe today he was a little over the limit on the Tourmalet, and when you’re out of your zone, it’s hard to go downhill also. You make small mistakes or do a little less acceleration out of the corners, and for me, I had really good acceleration out of the hairpin. It was also good wind, and it was just trying to go as fast as possible and the safest way downhill. I was a bit scared at first, but it was all good.”
Vingegaard opted to ride at his own pace when Del Toro and Pogačar made their tandem-like move, which was working as mentioned, when his deficit was stagnating at 10 seconds, but this could only last so long, and it was as wide as 2:38 by the time he reached the finish.
“He tried to do his pace and was really close for a while,” said Pogačar. “I heard on the radio it was a really small gap, and for me, if the climb was also 1km longer, I would also explode, but I think for Jonas it was just a little bit too long for this pace. Was a little bit of a difference than you do too much in the red.”
Such was his complete dominance that Pogačar was compared to basketball great Michael Jordan, but he said his preferred sports stars from growing up, the likes of Olympic champion sprinter Usain Bolt and tennis star Novak Djokovic.
With all said and done, Pogačar arrived at the line and did look exhausted, having given everything to maximise his gap with the next mountain stage not arriving until Bastille Day to Le Lioran next Tuesday.
It was a victory he ranked among the top 5 of his Tour de France career, having taken his 23rd and again reduced the gap to Mark Cavendish’s record.
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