Pogacar storms back from the brink to trump rivals in the Pyrenees

Tadej Pogacar bounced back in vintage fashion to win the sixth stage of the Tour de France on Thursday, gaining a psychological edge over Jonas Vingegaard even though the defending champion took the overall leader's yellow jersey.

The Slovenian, who lost ground to Vingegaard in Wednesday's first mountain stage, resisted his rival's attack in the Col du Tourmalet before going solo on the final climb to Cauterets-Cambasque and beating the Jumbo Visma rider by 24 seconds.

After Australian Jai Hindley, who claimed the yellow jersey on Wednesday, was dropped before the top of the Tourmalet, Vingegaard and Pogacar were set to fight for the stage win on the last ascent, a 16km effort at 5.4%.

Pogacar attacked with 2.7km left, taking Vingegaard by surprise after the Dane's team had done everything to set him up for the win all day, looking to put the hammer down on the 2020 and 2021 champion.

They hit their finger with the hammer, instead, as Pogacar emerged as the day's winner, setting the scene for a potentially memorable Tour.

"In the last four kilometres they told me on the team radio to stay calm but I decided it was the right time to go," said Pogacar, who now has 10 Tour stage wins to his name.

"(When Vingegaard attacked earlier) I was focused on just staying on his wheel. If I had lost the wheel, it would have been a big problem."

"I would not say revenge but it's good to win today and take back some time. I feel a little bit of relief and feel much better now," he added.

"The display Jonas showed yesterday was incredible and I was thinking when they started pulling on the Tourmalet - 'shit, if it's going to happen like yesterday we can pack our bags and go home'. Luckily I had good legs today and could follow on the Tourmalet quite comfortably.

"Then, when I felt it was the right moment in the end I attacked - it was a big relief.It's 10 stage victory - I'm coming for you Mark! "I would say it's almost perfect the gap and it's going to be a big big battle until the last stage I think," said the Solvenian rider.

Overall, Vingegaard leads Pogacar by 25 seconds and third-placed Hindley by one minute 34 seconds and, after only six days of racing, it is clear that the race is highly likely to be decided between the two great rivals.

Briton Simon Yates is a distant fourth, 3:14 off the pace, with Spain's Carlos Rodriguez in fifth 3:30 behind and Adam Yates in sixth place 10 seconds further down.

It was blackboard strategy by Jumbo Visma but Pogacar was much stronger than the day before when he could not follow Vingegaard's attack in the Col de Marie Blanque and could only limit the damage.

"I wanted to try again but he was stronger today," said Vingegaard. "It was the toughest start in the history of the Tour. I'd rather have a two-minute lead today but I'm not going to complain about being in yellow."

Wilco Kelderman and Sepp Kuss set a devilish pace in the Col du Tourmalet (17.1km at 7.3%) to skim down the peloton, preparing Vingegaard's attack.

Kuss upped the tempo again with just over four km to go until the top and Pogacar and Hindley were the only ones to follow.

It was too much to handle for Hindley, who sustained the pace for a few seconds only, leaving Pogacar and Vingegaard in Kuss' slipstream.

Green jersey wearer, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) has won both of the bunch sprints so far and will be looking for that hat trick to prevent Cavendish from winning that magical 35th stage. -