Stage win for Tadej Pogacar, yellow jersey for Jonas Vingegaard – and thumbs up from Emmanuel Macron: Before the eyes of the French head of state, the two cycling giants finally made the 110th Tour de France their private duel and the spectacular Pyrenees ride over the Tourmalet ended the short reign of the German team Bora-hansgrohe.
Slovenian challenger Pogacar, to whom Macron paid tribute, won the first mountain finish with a bold attack just ahead of Vingegaard, who showed slight weaknesses for the first time in the high mountains. The Danish defending champion replaced Bora’s Australian Jai Hindley, who had no chance this time, at the top of the overall standings – Emanuel Buchmann also fell behind.
The day before, UAE captain Pogacar had lost time on Vingegaard. This time the Slovenian made a decisive attack shortly before the finish after 144.9 km at 1355 m altitude in Cauterets-Cambasque and won by 24 seconds over jumbo star Vingegaard.
In the overall standings, however, the 26-year-old Dane is 25 seconds ahead of two-time champion Pogacar – a duel for the history books is looming.
Bora, on the other hand, experienced a sobering day after the fantastic start in the Pyrenees on Wednesday with a yellow card and victory for Hindley and fourth place for Buchmann. The two top drivers had no chance, Hindley finished sixth, 2:39 minutes behind, and fell back to third place in the overall classification (+ 1:39 minutes). Buchmann, who with self-sacrificing work on the final climb still ensured damage limitation in favor of Hindley, was even further behind and lost fourth place overall.
As in 2018, when Peter Sagan was replaced after one stage, the second luck in yellow ended for the German team after just 24 hours. At least Hindley can still hope for the podium in Paris.
In the obligatory early escape group, Vingegaard’s jumbo team had housed his all-purpose weapon Wout Van Aert, as well as Nikias Arndt from Lower Saxony from Team Bahrain Victorious. The Bora-hansgrohe team at the front of the field allowed the escapees a maximum lead of almost five minutes, saving energy for the brutal mountain trilogy with Aspet, Tourmalet and Cambasque.
“Vingo Pogi Duel”
Sport director Rolf Aldag announced that “the boys will kill themselves” for yellow, although he admitted that the mountain strength of Jumbo and UAE was above the Bora level.
At the Tourmalet, Aldag felt vindicated: When Vingegaard got serious with two helpers, Buchmann, who was so strong the day before, was initially unable to follow, and three kilometers from the top of the pass Hindley also fell behind. Only Pogacar could go with Vingegaard and his top helper Sepp Kuss.
Shortly before the crest it was only the “Vingo-Pogi duel” – the Dane still had Van Aert in front of him as a remnant of the escape group and thus valuable support on the final climb. But Pogacar was the strongest there – Vingegaard stayed yellow.
The maillot jaune can certainly be a great burden for Vingegaard: The last time the great Bernard Hinault and before that Eddy Merckx (1969 and 1970) managed to wear the yellow jersey from such an early stage to the finish in Paris was the last time took the overall lead on stage six and didn’t give it up.