Pogacar crushes rivals on Tourmalet to seize yellow on Tour de France stage 6

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) soloed back into the yellow jersey with a devastating statement victory in the Pyrenees on stage 6 of the Tour de France ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike). 

The world champion launched his race-winning move on the slopes of the Col du Tourmalet with 42.6km remaining, going solo after he and his teammate Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) had distanced the rest of the competition just a few hundred metres earlier. 

Vingegaard set his own tempo and initially held Pogačar within ten seconds for a couple of kilometres, before the gap stretched to 30 seconds by the summit with 38km remaining. 

Meanwhile, Del Toro, Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) formed the next chase group on the road and were 1:30 behind the Slovenian at the summit. 

Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) led the third group on the road featuring Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious), and Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike), and the two chasing groups behind Vingegaard would reunite on the Tourmalet descent with 28km remaining. 

Over the final 18km gradual rise to Gavarnie-Gèdre, Pogačar continued to plough ahead, hammering home his advantage, while Vingegaard held off the chasing pack. 

In the end, Pogačar’s margin of victory in Gavarnie-Gèdre was a significant 2:38 over Vingegaard, while Del Toro led home the rest of the competition at 2:57. 

Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility), who started the stage in the yellow jersey, was distanced from the peloton with 49km remaining, 10km from the summit of the Tourmalet. Træen continued to battle towards the summit, but the yellow jersey was slipping from his grasp as Pogacar quickly closed his 7:53 deficit. 

The Norwegian's fate was sealed when he suffered a crash on the descent of the Tourmalet. Fortunately, Træen was able to continue the race, but it was nonetheless a difficult end to his spell of leading the Tour. 

Back in yellow, Pogačar now leads the Tour by 2:42 over Vingegaard, while Del Toro sits third at 3:27.

Pogačar’s solo success marks his 23rd stage win at the Tour and second of the 2026 edition, adding to his success in Les Angles on stage 3. He now sits alone in fifth overall in the all-time list of Tour stage wins, twelve behind the record total of 35 held by Mark Cavendish. 

The stage began in Pau with an immediate attack from Victor Campenaerts (Visma | Lease a Bike), instantly setting out an aggressive stall for the Dutch team. Campenaerts was shortly joined by Huub Artz (Lotto-Intermarché) before Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) bridged his way across, sporting the green jersey. 

However, the breakaway wouldn’t remain together for long. Artz was spotted in heated communication with the commissaires' car on two separate occasions. The Dutchman was reprimanded for his hand position, and after receiving a verbal warning from the race organisers, a visibly frustrated Artz made the decision to drop back to the peloton. 

Campenaerts and Pedersen would make it to the intermediate sprint with 127km remaining, dangling in front of the peloton, where the Dane claimed the maximum 25 points to extend his lead in the points classification. 

Behind, for the second stage running, Max Kanter (XDS) won the sprint from the peloton, ahead of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Biniam Girmay (NSN).

Moments prior to the intermediate sprint, Evenepoel was caught out after a visit to the team car, leaving Red Bull with a brief chase on their hands, as the pace ramped up int the peloton and Pedersen and Campenaerts were reeled in with 123km to go.

On the category 3 Côte de Mauvezin, there were plenty of attempts to form a breakaway, but it was Xabier Mikel Azparren (Pinarello-Q36.5) with 110km to go who broke clear before he was joined by a surging Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla) just before the summit.

A few kilometres later, O’Connor pushed on solo, but the Australian was never given much of an advantage

He hit the lower slopes of the Col d’Aspin with just under 80km remaining, holding a slim gap of less than a minute. Behind him, UAE Team Emirates-XRG immediately asserted control, with Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) setting a punishing tempo.

Ayuso found himself caught out of position at the bottom of the climb, leaving the Spanish rider with a twenty-second chase to get back to the peloton. 

With 73km to go, O’Connor was reeled in by the rampant UAE train, now led by Tim Wellens, who was turning the screws and dialling up the pressure, which saw Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost) and Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), who started the stage in second and third overall, distanced. 

Despite the stern pace, Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) was able to launch an attack around 2km from the summit in a bid to claim the ten points on offer at the summit for the mountains classification. 

However, he was joined by his compatriot Martinez just a few hundred metres before the summit, and was pipped by the Bahrain rider before being collected by the peloton ahead of the Col du Tourmalet. 

Wellens led the race into the base of the Tourmalet with 55km remaining, and Thymen Arensman (Netcompany-Ineos), Matthew Riccitello (Decathlon CMA CGM), and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) were among the first high-profile names distanced. 

The race leader Træen slipped off the back of the bunch with 50km remaining and had Anders Halland Joahnnessen (Uno-X Mobility) for support, as Felix Großschartner (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was next to dish out the pain at the head of the UAE train. 

Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) was next to be distanced with 47km remaining, as Großscharnter swung off and Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) took control of the pace-setting. 

Davide Piganzoli (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) were victims of the pace set by McNulty. 

When Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) took over from McNulty with 44km remaining, the elite front group had been whittled down to just thirteen riders.

Within a kilometre, Del Toro took the reins, ramping up the pace with Pogačar locked onto his wheel. Vingegaard and Seixas briefly tracked the move, but the UAE duo quickly opened a frightening gap 

Behind, Vingegaard set his own tempo, with Lipowitz and Seixas chasing closely. 

With 42.5km to go and three kilometres of the Tourmalet still remaining, Pogačar launched solo. Del Toro slid back, briefly slotting onto Vingegaard's wheel before the Dane distanced him to keep the World Champion within ten seconds. 

Further back, Del Toro and Lipowitz were joined by Seixas, while Evenepoel led the next chasing group containing Ayuso, Skjelmose, Martinez, and Kuss. 

The gap between the two heavyweights widened over the final two kilometres of the climb. By the summit, Pogačar led Vingegaard by 30 seconds. The Del Toro-Lipowitz-Seixas axis was 1:30 behind the World Champion, with the Evenepoel-led group a further 20 seconds back. 

Pogačar would solo the final 38km to the finish to a significant step forward in his quest for a fifth Tour title.