'Maybe Visma wanted to keep me in yellow' - Pogacar queries Tour de France tactics
There was a shift in the race leadership on an attritional stage 6 of the Tour de France, as the Slovenian - eventually - ceded the yellow jersey to Mathieu van der Poel.
Tadej Pogačar dropped into second in the general classification of the Tour de France as Mathieu van der Poel moved back into yellow after featuring in an eight-man breakaway on stage 6, which was won by Ben Healy with a 42km solo effort.
UAE Team Emirates-XRG looked content to give the jersey back to Van der Poel, and it seemed he would have a big lead in the standings ahead of stage 7 until the Dutchman began to feel the heat and fatigue after a tough start to the Tour combined with a late injection of pace into the general classification group. That things in the balance as the riders crossed the finish line in Vire after another very attritional stage.
“In the end, I think Mathieu has it by one second, so chapeau to him, super ride from him today, and the breakaway did a really amazing job on the front, so all credit to the guys in the breakaway," Pogačar said.
The UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader described a brutally fast opening to the stage before his team made a tactical decision to conserve energy rather than chase the stage win.
“At the start, two hours was super hard, super fast, incredibly fast, and we survived good for two hours, and then we were deciding if we go for the stage or not, but then we decided to not spend bullets, then we rode our pace. Nils [Politt] did his job, Marc [Soler] and the rest of the team.
Pogačar also suggested that Visma | Lease a Bike's aggressive tempo in the closing kilometres and final climb might have been an attempt to ensure he stayed in the yellow jersey. "No, in the end, Visma tried to do, I don't know what, but they went hard, so yeah, we just follow,” Pogačar said.
"Visma came on the last two kickers, just riding all out. Maybe they had info that Van der Poel was suffering in front, that he’s losing time, and maybe Visma wanted to give me [the] yellow jersey today."
Despite losing the race lead, Pogačar remains focused on the bigger picture, and after a tough six days so far, he aimed to preserve as much energy as possible on Thursday's stage with the mountains still to come in the second and third week of racing.
“I don’t mind to have the yellow jersey, but as I said, the goal is to spend as less as possible today. Tomorrow is another good finish for me and then we still need some legs for the second and third week," he explained. "What we did today was really good from us.”
