He was still stronger than the others. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) won the sixth stage of the Tour de France in a sprint on Thursday July 7 in Longwy (Meurthe-et-Moselle), at the same time taking the overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The Slovenian genius, double title holder, was the strongest in the last 200 meters and beat Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ). “It’s like it’s the first time I’ve had it”savored Pogacar at the microphone of France Télévisions just after having officially endorsed the yellow jersey.
Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), author of a huge stage at the front and great animator of the race, must give up his yellow jersey after having paid for his efforts in the last ten kilometers. The Belgian, who recovers his green jersey, wanted to retain the positive after his incredible stage. “The yellow jersey is the most beautiful, it’s surehe smiled at France Télévisions. Today I wanted to be in the breakaway and try something. I’m still happy to change my shirt and now I’m going to help my teammates.”
Wout van Aert once again visited the Temple of the Plume and inscribed his name there, if it was not already there, in golden letters. In the first hour and a half of the race, the Jumbo-Visma handyman accumulated around fifteen attacks until he slipped into a breakaway, with Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-Premier Tech), who finally raised, and Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), who exploded in the wheel of the Belgian.
Controlled by the peloton, Van Aert was finally caught at 11 kilometers and gave way to make way for a peloton launched at high speed. In this pack of men hungry for victory at Longwy, a famous young man in the white jersey later pulled out of his boot one of his assets: explosiveness. Tadej Pogacar first attacked on the Pulventeux coast (800m at 12.3%) before dropping everyone in the final sprint.
If the package was launched by his compatriot Primoz Roglic, the Slovenian then overwhelmed him to distance everyone by several meters. “I felt it in my legs, so I went for it and it did for the win.”reacted the new yellow jersey, which does not “didn’t expect this victory”. Tadej Pogacar has been full of confidence before what he announces as “the first big test for the legs”Friday, at the Super Planche des Belles Filles.
In the wheel of Pogacar, who waddled in the last coast of Pulventeux, a Breton in the blue-white-red jersey never took his eyes off him. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) largely reassured his fans on this sixth stage by finishing third, only beaten, like Romain Bardet (Team DSM), tenth in the stage, in the final sprint. “I have a great team and it’s just funfirst smiled the French leader at the end of the race. It was a very hard stage, it was long and it went very fast. I managed to take the right wheel at the right time in the sprint [avec Roglic]until Pogacar uncoupled us in the last 250 meters.”
Supported by Thibaut Pinot, who then finished almost three minutes from winning, and Stefan Küng in the last twenty kilometers, Gaudu already has the lead on Friday and the Super Planche des Belles Filles. “We will have to recover, it will be very difficult. Pogacar may still want to win tomorrow, we don’t know. We will have to be fresh in the legs and in the head.” The Habs assures us: “It’s a new Tour de France that is starting.”