A legendary feat. Tadej Pogacar put on one of the best performances of his career in the sixth stage of the Tour, which included the climb of the mythical Tourmalet, the symbolic ascent of the Grande Boucle. The two-time world champion, after an attack by his teammate Del Toro, is alone at the front 42.7 km from the finish, 4 km from the summit of the Tourmalet. Vingegaard cannot respond and the gap between the two rivals keeps growing. At the top of the Tourmalet the Dane is 30" behind, at the finish in Gavarnie-Gèdre, an unprecedented climb in the Pyrenees, it will be 2'38"; third is Del Toro at 3'27" who pulls off a move to deny the bonus to Evenepoel, fourth. Then Ayuso at 3'34", Seixas at 3'55" and Lipowitz at 4'. In the general classification, Pogacar returns as master of the yellow jersey with 2'42" over Vingegaard, 3'27" over Del Toro, 3'30" over Evenepoel, 3'34" over Ayuso, 3'55" over Seixas, 4' over Lipowitz, 4'21" over Lenny Martines, 4'57" over Skjelmose and 9'12" over Bernal.

For Pogacar it is his 23rd stage win at the Tour. At the finish line, the Slovenian from UAE Emirates appears emotional about what he has achieved: "It's one of the sweetest victories. Among the top five, perhaps among the top three achievements of my career. We discussed the plan on the bus the day before. Today we woke up motivated, and we knew it would be a great day. We gave our all, as if we had nothing to lose. Flashbacks of similar finales came back to me, I thought about how it was in 2023, but today was an incredible day".

On the gap inflicted on Vingegaard, the Slovenian commented: "I don't like calculating seconds or minutes. I just wanted to reach the finish line at full speed". He also has a thought for Norwegian Torstein Traeen, who wore the yellow jersey at the start and crashed on the descent from the Tourmalet: Traeen finished at 29'55", injured on his right shoulder, escorted by Anders Johannessen who never left his side and embraced him at the finish line, but proud of his fairy tale. "I hope he's okay – Pogacar said -. The Tourmalet descent is very steep and dangerous. I thought he could keep the jersey today too. I hope he recovers soon".

After just six stages, the road that could lead Pogacar towards his fifth Tour triumph is clear: waiting for him in that club are Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault and Indurain.