Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates won the hilly 220-kilometer Stage 6 of the Tour de France on Thursday and took the lead in the general classification with his performance.
After Team Jumbo Visma struggled on the cobblestone sections in Stage 5, the team showed some resilience on Stage 6 to keep Jonas Vingegaard in the GC chase.
Wout Van Aert, who wore the yellow leader’s jersey for the fourth consecutive day, took a shot at another stage victory and initiated several breakaway attempts. After 70 kilometers, one of his many efforts resulted in success, and two other riders joined him, including Quinn Simmons of Trek Segafredo. In no time the trio built a four-minute lead
At the intermediate sprint, Van Aert took the maximum number of points and added to his leading position in the points classification.
Simmons, meanwhile, scored a pair of King of the Mountain points and is now fourth in the mountains race.
The peloton, however, caught Simmons with about 30 kilometers to go and it caught Van Aert, who had been riding solo, with 11 kilometers to go.
A depleted peloton then sprinted for the win on the final slope, with Jumbo Visma riders Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic finishing seventh and ninth, respectively, behind the stage winner, Pogacar.
“I wanted to be in a big breakaway. That way, we wouldn’t have to waste too much energy in the chase,” Van Aert said after the race. “Right from the start, I took the initiative. A lot of teams had the same idea. Unfortunately, we only got away with three. Because I had already used up all my energy at that point, I decided to push on. I did my best and said goodbye to the yellow jersey in style. I enjoyed today's stage and I hope the fans did too. It was a nice way to end my time in yellow. It's not bad at all to be wearing the green jersey now.”
Van Aert ended up finishing 103rd, crossing the finish line with Sepp Kuss 7:28 behind Pogacar. Kuss finished 105th.
Simmons, meanwhile, ended up finishing 157th on the day (+11:28) after his early efforts.
On Stage 5 Wednesday, Van Aert risked his yellow leader’s jersey to help one of Jumbo Visma’s two leaders, Vingegaard, stay in the mix. Van Aert himself crashed early in the race, which had 11 cobbled sectors along the 157-kilometer route, but he rallied and mitigated some of his team’s bad luck.
Vingegaard had a mechanical issue when the chain fell off his bike. He switched bikes with a teammate, but it was too big for him, so he switched bikes again with a different teammate before ultimately grabbing a new bike from the team car.
Roglic, meanwhile, crashed hard after hitting a hay bill that got bumped into the road. Roglic then had to pop a dislocated shoulder back into its socket by himself so he could complete the race. Roglic dropped 37 places in the general classification race and was 2:36 back after finishing 61st on the stage.
Van Aert dropped back and helped pull Vingegaard and the peloton, and he managed to hold on to the yellow jersey for another day, finishing 1:04 behind the stage winner, Simon Clarke of Israel Premier Tech, in 16th place. Vingegaard crossed 17th and slid just one spot in the GC race to seventh, 40 seconds behind Van Aert.
Kuss finished 91st on the stage (+4:12) for Jumbo Visma.
Simmons finished 129th (+9:24), but Mads Pederson stayed near the GC lead, dropping just two spots to sixth (+0:36) with a 37th-place peloton finish on the stage. On Stage 6, however, Pederson fell out of the GC chase with a 156th-place finish, dropping 70 spots to 76th.
In the GC race after Stage 6, American Neilson Powless of EF Education EasyPost was in second, just four seconds behind Pogacar. Vingegaard moved into third, trailing Pogacar by 0:31. Roglic moved up 16 places Thursday to into 28th, 2:27 back.
On Friday, the Tour de France will have its first true mountain stage, allowing Kuss to show off his strengths.
“I think we have one of the strongest teams for that terrain, which will enable Steven Kruijswijk and Sepp Kuss to show their exceptional qualities,” Vingegaard said. “Long climbs suit me better than steep and explosive finishes like today. Supported by our strong team, I believe we can show some great things in the upcoming stages.”
