Tadej Pogacar bounces back to win stage 6 and take yellow at Critérium du Dauphiné

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) put to bed any doubts about his form with a demonstration on stage 6 at the Critérium du Dauphiné, winning the stage and taking the yellow jersey from the shoulders of Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step). The world champion has a large catalogue of stunning victories, this being the 97th of his career already, but this was comfortably one of the most impressive. 

Finishing with a summit finish to Combloux, Pogacar proved the time lost in the individual time trial was insignificant compared to the performance he just produced on the steep slopes of the stage 6 finish. His UAE teammates set a blistering pace on the final climb of the day before Pogacar launched his trademark seated acceleration that not even Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) was able to cope with. It’s a major boost for the Slovenian ahead of an even more difficult mountain stage to come on Saturday.

The gaps were sizeable. Pogacar finished 1:01 ahead of Vingegaard and 1:22 ahead of an impressive Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe). Evenepoel finished 1:50 seconds behind the world champion as he ceded race leadership in the process, ahead of two more major Alpine tests to come this weekend.

After a tough start in Valserhone, eventually a group of eight riders were able to establish themselves as part of a strong breakaway. The group featured: Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility), Romain Bardet (Picnic PostNL), Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies), Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ), Pierre Thierry (Arkéa-B&B Hotels).

The main action started to kick off as Visma | Lease a Bike launched a furious pace at the front of the peloton towards the slopes of the Côte de Mont-Saxonnex, the only category 1 climb of the stage. It was a scintillating pace from the Dutch team that saw the peloton split into pieces as soon as the road went upwards.

Sepp Kuss then launched a move and was very quickly marked by Pogačar, who had Vingegaard and Evenepoel glued to his wheel. Matteo Jorgenson, Ben Tulett, and Tim Wellens were still in the front group with the Big Three, as was Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Enric Mas (Movistar), Eddie Dunbar (Jayco AlUla), and the youngest rider in the race, 18-year-old Paul Seixas (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale).

It was Lipowitz who made the next move when there was a moment of hesitation, and the German hovered ahead of the GC group until he was caught within a few hundred metres to the summit. At the front of the race, the breakaway’s gap diminished, as well as its composition, with Baudin and Leonard proving to be the strongest on the climb. The duo reached the summit with less than a minute of a gap to the GC group, led by an impressive Wellens.

Following the descent of the climb, and long valley road before the summit finish in Combloux, the GC group swelled in size, but crucially, the race leader Evenepoel was still isolated, while Pogacar and Vingegaard were swarmed by teammates. The front duo of Baudin and Leonard were able to also extend their gap by around 20-30 seconds though their chances of a stage victory remained scant.

Onto the final climb of the day, albeit separated into two separately categorised ascents by the organisers, and UAE found themselves on the front with Wellens, Pavel Sivakov, and Jhonatan Narvaez ahead of Pogačar. Baudin distanced his breakaway companion Leonard in an attempt to claim the stage honours. Narvaez launched a high pace on the front, which saw race leader Evenepoel distanced as well as Jorgenson and Lipotwiz. Shortly after, Pogačar and Vingegaard found themselves alone before the world champion was able to ride away with ease from Vingegaard.

Pogačar took off like a rocket with a seated acceleration and very quickly established a gap of over 20 seconds between himself and Vingegaard. Behind, race leader Evenepoel found himself in a group with Lipowitz, Jorgenson and Wellens, with the German Lipowitz contributing most to the pace.

From here on in, the gaps between Pogačar and Vingegaard, and the Dane and the race leader’s group, gradually increased on the tough slopes up to Combloux. Lipowitz proved that he was the strongest in the race leader’s group as the German was able to distance his rivals in an attempt to bridge across the Vingegaard. A continuation of Lipowitz’s very impressive week at the Dauphiné, as he establishes himself as a potential co-leader for Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at the Tour de France alongside Primož Roglič. It proved to be a tough day for Evenepoel as Jorgenson was also able to lift the pace to distance the Belgian, who soldiered on with a strong performance still.

Back up front and Pogačar cruised across the finish line in Combloux to claim not only the stage win, but also the race leadership and control of this Dauphiné. Vingegaard finished second at 1:01, Lipowitz third at 1:22, Jorgenson fourth at 1:30, while the yellow jersey Evenepoel ended fifth at 1:50. Baudin from the breakaway finished sixth, while behind there were also very strong rides from Tulett, Dunbar and Seixas as well as Tobias Halland Johannssen (Uno-X Mobility), Louis Barré (Intermarche-Wanty), all of whom now make up the remaining 5 places in the GC top 10.

Pogačar now leads the Dauphiné by 43 seconds over Vingegaard, 54 seconds over Lipowitz in third. Evenepoel slips to fourth at 1:22 with two more mountain stages to come.