'My mind was going crazy' - Pogacar's Tourmalet plan pays off to stunning effect

The world champion attacked with intent on the mighty Col du Tourmalet with 42km still to race after his UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad had set a blistering pace on the climb, whittling down the front group to its bare bones in the process.

Pogačar initially had teammate Isaac del Toro for company before he struck out alone some 4km from the summit. His eternal rival Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease a Bike) initially held Pogačar at a handful of seconds, but the gap yawned out to half a minute by the summit. Game over.

On the descent, Pogačar doubled his lead on Vingegaard, and he continued to pile on the pressure on the climb to Gavarnie-Gèdre, coming home 2:38 clear of Vingegaard. Pogačar is back in the yellow jersey and his lead over Vingegaard is already 2:42, while Del Toro is third at 3:27.

Speaking at the finish, Pogačar placed the victory among the very best of his career – “top five, I would say” – and he compared it to his triumph at Cauterets in 2023, when he distanced Vingegaard on the final climb.

“I got flashbacks to the stage also with Tourmalet in 2023, the year I broke my hand,” Pogačar said. “I got a lot of flashbacks, it was a similar finish. It’s a really incredible victory, it’s one of the sweetest, for sure.”

Pogačar broke his record on the Tourmalet – set in 2023 – by more than two minutes here, and he acknowledged that the stage had gone precisely as planned. UAE’s strategy was for Pogačar to forge clear alone on the steepest part of the Tourmalet and remove any tactical considerations ahead of the shallow finishing climb. In the finale, his sheer power made the difference. 

“Yesterday on the bus when we were coming from the stage with the guys, there was a very big hype already talking about today’s stage,” Pogačar said. “Today I woke up at seven in the morning and already my mind was going crazy, so I was really, really excited for today. 

“All the guys were really hyped, so I knew it would be a good day. We just committed. We were going with nothing to lose. If we exploded, we exploded, but in the end we succeeded. And I’m super proud of everybody. Today was crazy teamwork.”

The victory also puts Pogačar back into the yellow jersey with an emphatic lead over Vingegaard. Overnight leader Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility) was already irretrievably distanced on the Tourmalet, and he had already lost the jersey by the time he crashed on the descent.

“In my mind, I left everything to everything to coincidence: whatever happens, happens,” Pogačar said. “I was not calculating any seconds or minutes or who’s going to win or whatever. I just wanted to do all the way to the finish full gas.

“I didn’t think I would get the yellow jersey today, but I heard now that Torstein Træen crashed really bad on the Tourmalet. It’s quite a shit downhill, really dangerous if you miss a corner, and I hope he’s OK. I would maybe prefer if he could keep the jersey today. I hope he recovers fast and that he can continue racing.