tour reporter
Tadej Pogacar wins stage 6 of the Tour de France at Longwy and takes the yellow jersey. The competitors are puzzled as to how to stop him.
“Vai, vai, vai”shouted the coaches in Tadej Pogacar’s team bus when the in Longwy started his sprint. Then came cheers that almost lip-synched with those of Pogacar, who crossed the finish line of Stage 6 at the same time Tour de France cried out his joy.
No, they still don’t take Pogacar’s wins for granted with the UAE team, which has an Italian heritage at its core. Although of course they have known for a long time that their captain is up to any task on the bike and wins when he wants to win. At least that’s how it appears.
An all-rounder on the bike
At the time trial at the start of the Tour de France in Copenhagen, Pogacar wasn’t the fastest of all, but at least took a little time away from all his supposed rivals in the fight for overall victory.
As the tour descended on part of the cobbled streets of Paris-Roubaix dared, the Slovenian pulled away from his rivals in one sector and gained more seconds in the classification. And now the stage win in the uphill sprint in Longwy including ten bonus seconds and taking over the yellow jersey.
Tadej Pogacar is an all-rounder on the bike. This is not an entirely new finding. “If someone has already won the Tour twice, we shouldn’t be too surprised that he’s a good cyclist.”said Rolf Aldag after the 6th stage.
Distances are still small
Aldag is the sporting director of the Bora-hansgrohe team, which would like to be on the podium in Paris with Alexander Vlasov. The Russian in Longwy lost another five seconds due to a fall in the final, even declared before the tour that he wanted to compete for victory. But how this is supposed to succeed in the face of Pogacar’s dominance – they’re not just puzzling over it at Bora-hansgrohe.
The gaps are still small – Pogacar’s closest rivals are no more than a minute away, with the exception of Primoz Roglic, who lost more than two minutes on the cobblestones on Wednesday – but there is no obvious weakness in the Slovenian. On the contrary.
“Nothing has been decided yet, but of course he’s looking super good and we have to think about how to attack him.”, explained Grischa Niermann. The German ex-pro leads the sporting fortunes of the Jumbo Visma team, which includes Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard the two main competitors.
Jumbo-Visma’s plan doesn’t work out
After a chaotic performance on the pavé stage, the Dutch team were again puzzled on the way to Longwy. “We also philosophized about it”Aldag said when asked later about Jumbo-Visma’s tactics.
In the first two hours of racing, Jumbo-Visma in the person of Wout van Aertwho had started the race in yellow in the morning, rode one attack after the other, which, in addition to the tailwind, made the race extremely fast and challenging for the first two hours.
After about 80 kilometers vto Aert then finally got away first with two, later with a comrade-in-arms and finally all alone until he was caught and overtaken 12 kilometers from the finish line – with which the yellow jersey was gone.
“The plan was different than what happened next”confessed vto Aert later. In fact, they had hoped for Jumbo-Visma to have a big break in which he could have defended his yellow jersey without having to work for his team, who had been so shaken up the day before.
“Jumbo needs to get his act together now”
“It was a small group then, but I put so much energy into it that I couldn’t go back and honored the jersey”, said van Aert. With the Belgian at the front, Jumbo-Visma didn’t have to do the tracking work in the field either, but various coalitions formed at the back to bring the escapees back again.
The nervousness of the Dutch team is also in peloton noticeable. “Jumbo has to slowly get himself together again”scolded Maximilian Schachmann of the German team Bora-hansgrohe after Primoz caused Roglic to fall en route. “Because they just really drive like the broken ones on the last centimeter, can’t do it and then hang themselves on the curb.”
Pogacar’s team seems vulnerable
However, the burden of defending the yellow jersey now rests with the UAE team as the Tour heads towards Friday’s first mountain finish at La Super Planche Des Belles Filles. Pogacar’s side might be the only weak spot in the Slovenian’s armour.
On the cobblestone stage on Wednesday, his colleagues were ahead of the first pavé-Piece no longer at Pogacar’s side. And than the race at the beginning of the stage after Longwy a hell of a pace and one attack followed the next, three of his comrades-in-arms were quickly left behind and later only came back with difficulty.
“At the moment you would assume that the team is more vulnerable than he might be”, said Rolf Aldag. However, Pogacar’s winning sprint was in Longwy from Rafal Majka and Brandon McNulty been prepared in an exemplary manner.
If necessary, just go it alone
In any case, Pogacar never tires of praising his team. “They took me to the finish line, so I had to finish it for them”said Pogacar, whose team is running the race now that he’s in Maillot Jaune drives, must control.
“You don’t say no to the yellow jersey”explained Pogacar. “The jersey gives self-confidence and motivates the whole team.” And if need be, he just has to fix it himself. The 23-year-old child prodigy has already proven often enough that he can do that.
Maximilian Schachmann, who supports his captain Alexander Vlasov at Bora-hansgrohe, is therefore under no illusions. He checked out his former teammates Rafal Majka inquired. The Pole – Pogacar’s most important helper in the mountains – gave him some data. “A lot has to come up,” Schachmann concluded, “that won’t work.” With the tour victory of Tadej Pogacar.