The Tour de France is not over until the Champs-Elysee in Paris. Tadej Pogacar may have been down on the general classification, but he was not out of the Tour de France.
Route Description: Today's stage started in Tarbes located in the high Pyrennes at the foot of this mighty mountain chain for the Tour de France. The stage was only 144.9 km, but contained more climbing than stage 5. The stage contained one third category climb, two category 1 climbs, and one HC climb. The route started out of Tarbes towards the third category climb of the Cote de Capvern-les-bains. After the first climb the sprint points was located at Sarrancolin. Only a handful of kilometers after the sprint was the beginning of the category 1 Col d'Aspin. The descent of the col d'Aspin led directly in to the mighty hors category Col du Tourmalet by far the highest point thus far in the Tour at 2115 meters. After the perilous descent of the Tourmalet the climb to Cauterets-Cambasque started almost immediately. The finish line of the stage was at the top of the final category 1 climb of the day.
Race Summary and Analysis: From the moment the neutralized start was over it was clear what the Jumbo-Visma strategy was. Wout Van Aert immediately accelerated trying to create the breakaway. A breakaway with multiple teams would form. Neilson Powless would bridge the gap to the breakaway before the climbs. At the top of the Category 3 climb Powless would take the first position and gain the maximum king of the mountain points. Bora-Hansgrohe, the team of yellow jersey wearer Jai Hendley, would maintain a high enough pace to limit the time gap to the breakaway to nu more than three minutes. The breakaway would continue to lead the race over the Col d'Aspin; Neilson Powless would take the maximum points over this climb as well. The climb of the Col du Tourmalet would start to disintegrate the breakaway and peloton. As usual the sprinters would be dropped and form their group to avoid the time cut. The peloton started to chase down the break with first UAE and then Jumbo-Visma setting the pace. As the reduced peloton got to the upper slopes of the Tourmalet, Sepp Kuss of Jumbo-Visma set a blistering pace that dropped most of the contenders except for Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, and Jai Hendley. Hendley was eventually distanced by the pace set by Kuss. Vingegaard decided to attack and try to ride Pogacar off his wheel as soon as Kuss was finished doing his job. Pogacar was up to the fight on the Tourmalet and rode in Vingegaard's wheel. By the top of the Tourmalet Vingegaard and Pogacar were right behind Neilson Powless, who had scored more KOM points. The three would ride the descent together while the remants of the breakaway include Wout Van Aert, Michal Kiawatkowski of Ineos, and James Shaw a teammate of Powless. By the top of the Tourmalet the remaining contenders including Hendley would be two and half minutes behind Pogacar and Vingegaard. The trio would start the climb up to Cauterets with Vingegaard setting the pace, and eventually they would capture the remnants of the breakaway. At this point it seemed like Vingegaard was going to set a pace that prevented Pogacar from attacking and that would eventually leave him behind out of gas to get to the finish line and limit the time loss. As soon as Van Aert was caught he went straight to the front of the group and set a punishing pace. As the final kilometers approached Vingegaard led Pogacar with Shaw, Kiwatkowski, and Powless trailing behind. Suddenly at approximately 3 kilometers to go Pogacar puts in an attack and gets some distance on Vingegaard. Vingegaard tries to dial up the pace to reel back in Pogacar, but he can only shave several seconds off the gap. Pogacar would maintain his lead and get to the flatter parts of the climb near the finish line where he extended his lead to around 20 seconds. Pogacar would win the stage and get the 10 bonus seconds. Vingegaard rode on at the maximum effort to limit his time loss knowing that instead of stamping his imprint on the Tour and expanding his lead; he had actually lost time to his nearest rival. Vingegaard most likely paid for his efforts to try and pry Pogacar off his wheel on the Tourmalet, and his attack from the previous day in the final few kilometers. All was not lost for Vingegaard as he assumed the yellow jersey at the end of the stage. This battle among the two top climbers will continue for the next two and a half weeks, but for now there will be a two day reprieve until Sunday on the Puy de Dome.
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