Tour de France: Tadej Pogacar Roars Back—Wins the Stage Through Aspin and Tourmalet and Reclaims the Yellow Jersey

After a couple of quiet days, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) is back in control of the Tour de France: the Slovenian champion won the sixth stage of the Grande Boucle, from Pau to Gavarnie-Gèdre, covering 186.2 kilometers and passing through the Col d’Aspin and the Col du Tourmalet, with a solo breakaway that saw him cross the finish line 2’38” ahead of his main rival, Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike): With today’s victory, Pogacar also reclaimed the yellow jersey, snatching it from Torstein Traeen (Uno X-Mobility).

The chasing pack finished 2’57” behind, led by Pogacar’s main domestique, the Mexican Isaac Del Toro. Rounding out today’s Top 5 were Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM Team). Davide Piganzoli, Vingegaard’s teammate, was the first Italian to cross the finish line, though he finished 8’21” behind Pogacar.

In the general classification, the Slovenian leads by 2’42” over Vingegaard and 3’27” over Del Toro. Evenepoel is fourth, 3’30” behind, while fifth place belongs to Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), who trails by 3’34”. For Traeen, however, it was an extremely unlucky day: in addition to losing the yellow jersey, the Norwegian was also involved in a nasty crash on a descent 21 kilometers from the finish line.

The Tour de France continues Friday with the seventh stage, a 175.1-kilometer route that will take the riders from Hagetmau, in the Landes department, to the famous city of Bordeaux, the capital of the Gironde department. There are no major climbs on the route, with the exception of the Cote de Beguey, a fourth-category mountain pass located more than 33 kilometers from the finish line, which is short (1,200 meters) and has a moderate gradient (4.4%).