'I didn’t expect this much of a gap' – Tadej Pogacar lays down the law at Critérium du Dauphiné

As he warmed down behind the podium, Tadej Pogačar could joke about why he had attacked with such ferocity on the two-part climb to Combloux to win stage 6 of the Critérium du Dauphiné. The motivation, he joked, was to catch coverage of his partner Urška Žigart in action at the Tour de Suisse Women.

“I had to hurry up to see the finish of Urska at the Tour de Suisse,” Pogačar smiled. “I was just in time, so it’s all good.”

That might have been part of his motivation, but the Slovenian was clearly eager too to make amends for his subdued performance in the stage 4 time trial at the Dauphiné. That display left him lagging behind rivals Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel, and it heightened their belief that they could trouble him at this Dauphiné and at next month’s Tour de France.

Vingegaard and Evenepoel’s morale will surely have been dented by Pogačar’s startling onslaught here. He didn’t only claim stage victory and regain the yellow jersey, he seemed to ride as though he was aiming to put the very idea of winning the Tour out of the minds of his rivals.

Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG shredded the yellow jersey group on the short, sharp climb of the Côte de Domancy, and Evenepoel was among those already distanced by Jhonatan Narváez’s forcing. Pogacar unleashed his own attack inside the final 800m of the climb and with a little over 7km of the stage remaining. He burned Vingegaard off his wheel with a startling, seated acceleration and then proceeded to run up the score on the climb of the Côte de la Cry that immediately followed.

At the finish line, Pogačar was 1:01 ahead of Vingegaard, while Evenepoel came home 1:50 down in fifth on the stage. In the overall standings, he is 43 seconds up on Vingegaard, with Evenepoel now fourth at 1:22.

“I think I was feeling really good and when I attacked it was an all-out effort,” Pogačar said. “I knew it was still about 15 mins after the Côte de Domancy to the top. I had to pace myself after the attack, but the feeling was there and the legs were turning. It was just in my favour to be in front and to gain time. One minute is good and I’m super happy.

“For sure, I did not expect this much of a gap. I was expecting there would be two-three guys following me and they would start to attack me. 

“I tried to really commit today to the steep part and then to accelerate on the easier part, but if you don’t have the legs, then you cannot do that. I’m super happy that the legs are here and I can be calm for the rest of the weekend.”

The short, sharp stage always seemed likely to come down to a slugging match on the climb to Combloux, though Vingegaard’s Visma | Lease a Bike squad showed some invention by splitting the field on the preceding category 1 ascent of the Côte de Mont-Saxonnex. They were unable to isolate Pogačar before the finale, and he could rely on Pavel Sivakov, Jhonatan Narvaez and Tim Wellens for support.

“We had this plan from the start but it almost fell apart when Visma attacked on the first category climb – but it came back together and we did what we wanted to do,” said Pogačar, who confessed that he was still bothered by the time he lost in Wednesday’s time trial.

“It definitely is a concern. It bothers me to lose time in the time trial but it’s a challenge for me and the team to improve. But the shape is good, and the legs are there. We need to hold the horses for the Tour, and that’s it.”

Before that, of course, there is the matter of two more mountain stages at this Dauphiné. Saturday’s leg to Valmeinier 1800 is a brute with the Col de la Madeleine and the Col de la Croix de Fer preceding the final haul to the line.

“We’ll try to survive and defend the jersey,” Pogačar said. “It will be hard with long climbs and we don’t have a pure climbing team here, but the guys are in good shape and I’m quite confident we can defend the jersey.”