They will say that Tadej Pogačar dealt a blow on stage six of the Tour de France. But really it was a pummelling – a beatdown so strong that, even by Pogačar’s standards, it took people by surprise.
Never in the world champion’s 22 previous stage victories at the race had he won so resoundingly, both in terms of distance and time. His 43km solo, over the Col du Tourmalet and on to Gavarnie, was his furthest ever at the Tour. The two minutes and 38 seconds he won by was his biggest single-day margin. Entire Tours have been decided by less.
And yet, as he sat in his press conference after the stage, dressed again in the yellow jersey he’s already won four times, he barely seemed tired. Especially not for a man who had gotten up at 7am because he was, in his words, “so excited for today”.
Pogačar had always planned to win on the race’s first mountain test. But even he couldn’t have expected to run away with the race.
“The energy yesterday on the bus after the finish was already a big hype for today,” he said. “We were like, ‘Let’s go all-in. What’s the worst that can happen?’ You can blow out a little bit, but we know that we are the stronger team, so we said we’d commit to one plan, and whatever happens, happens.”
What happened was a total demolition. Around 5km from the top of the Tourmalet, Pogačar sprung off the wheel of his UAE Team Emirates-XRG lieutenant Isaac del Toro, and charged away from his GC rivals. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) did his best to follow, but could only do so momentarily. By the time Pogačar passed the restaurant at the climb’s summit, his advantage was 31 seconds, which ballooned on the descent, and then swelled further on the near-19km drag up to the finish line in Gavarnie.
“The race went perfect for us, actually,” he said afterwards. “The breakaway couldn’t go for almost two hours, so that meant the bunch brought us closer to the climbs, and then we really did what we said.”
How events unfolded reminded the world champion of a similar day in 2023. That year, on stage six to Cauterets-Cambasque, Vingegaard attacked with Wout van Aert on the descent of the Tourmalet, and distanced Pogačar. “I had these flashbacks in my mind,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘If Jonas comes fresh to the top, and maybe he’s only 20 seconds [behind], he’s for sure catching me on the downhill.’”
In reality, it shouldn’t have worried him. Pogačar went on to win that stage three years ago, as he did on Thursday, in control once again in his playground of the Pyrenees.
Was there a moment, at all, when he felt on the limit? “I think, for me, if the climb [of the Tourmalet] was one kilometre longer, I would also have exploded,” he said.
“But I think for Jonas it was also a little bit too long for his pace. He did his best, he did really good, but there was a little bit of a difference, that you go too much into the red.”
Some watching on may have groaned at Pogačar’s dominance. But the fans at the roadside stood in awe of what they were seeing. One lady joyously waved her Slovenian flag in the wind. The staff at La Ruade bar, 300m from the finish line, came out onto the terrace and swung pumpkin-sized cowbells between their legs.
The crowd’s cheers then faded to silence. Where was Vingegaard? The gap on the big screen said almost two minutes, but the pictures were delayed; it felt like much longer. “I’m a Pogi guy,” one fan turned and said to his friend, “but I wanted there to be a contest.”
It was only when they heard the growl of a camera motorbike that the fans slipped out of their chit-chat, and turned to face the road, where a labouring Vingegaard chased in desperation.
For the Dane, what awaited at the summit was a huddle of reporters, impatient to capture his disappointment. Pogačar, on the other hand, was greeted by France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, in a pair of blue aviator sunglasses. “We had an immense stage,” Macron, who had followed in a race car, told France Télévisions. “It was incredible.”
The president watched the podium ceremony from the wings and applauded Pogačar on his victory. When he eventually congratulated the Slovenian, he gripped his hand and held it for more than 15 seconds, hoping perhaps to extract some of his powers.
This was, Macron realised, one of the sport’s most dominant riders ever, on one of his most dominant days. The supremacy was clear. The Tour may be an exhibition from here on.
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