The Slovenian won on Thursday after 144.9 kilometers in Cauterets-Cambasque ahead of defending champion Jonas Vingegaard and Norwegian Tobias Johannessen. Bora captain Jai Hindley, who had started stage six as the leader, finished sixth. In the standings, Vingegaard is 25 seconds ahead of Pogacar and is the new yellow jersey wearer. Hindley is third, 1:34 back. Felix Gall had to give up the dotted jersey for the best climber to the American Neilson Powless. The East Tyrolean, who only took the lead in the mountains classification on Wednesday, is now eight points behind Powless with 28 points.
Gall finished Stage 5, 3:22 behind Pogacar in 15th place and is 20th overall (+8:19). As the second best Austrian, Felix Großschartner came in 30th (+5:22), which also means 30th place overall (31:14).
On the mountain that writes legends
The two-time Tour winner Pogacar had already shown unusual weaknesses on the first mountain stage the day before and lost over a minute to Vingegaard. The 24-year-old broke his scaphoid at the end of April and came to the Tour with a training backlog and without much racing experience. His scaphoid is still bandaged. Already on the legendary Tourmalet, the penultimate climb of the day, things got down to business. Vingegaard attacked, the attack was followed only by Pogacar, who showed no weakness.
Hindley had already lost two minutes to the favorite duo at the summit of the Tourmalet. Vingegaard’s next push came on the 16-kilometer climb to Cauterets-Cambasque, which despite its length is not one of the greatest difficulties in the high mountains. Only in the last five kilometers did the gradient increase to double-digit percentages, which Vingegaard used to attack. But he couldn’t get rid of Pogacar, was apparently completely surprised by his counterattack and ultimately lost valuable time.
With no desire for revenge
“I wouldn’t say it was revenge. I just feel relieved. When Jonas attacked at the Tourmalet, I thought I could pack my things and go home. But luckily I had good legs,” said Pogacar. “The distance to Jonas is almost perfect now. It’s going to be a big, big battle to the end.”
After the two Pyrenees stages, it’s the sprinters’ turn again on Friday. From Mont-de-Marsan it is mostly flat over 169.9 kilometers to Bordeaux.
Source: Nachrichten
