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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 16-km 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.
Overall, Vingegaard leads Pogacar by 25 seconds and third-placed Hindley by one minute and 34 seconds.
Follow all the latest updates from stage six below:
Tour de France 2023 – Stage Six
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Highlights – final kilometre of stage six
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Tadej Pogacar wins stage six!
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3km to go: Pogacar attacks Vingegaard close to summit finish
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95km to go: Bryan Coquard takes 20 points in the sprint ahead of Wout van Aert
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115km to go: Neilson Powless claims two KOM points atop Cote de Capvern-les-Bains
Highlights – final kilometre of stage six
16:46 , Lawrence Ostlere
A look back at that final kilometre:
Tadej Pogacar wins stage six
16:39 , Lawrence Ostlere
You can take a look at the full standings in every category in the race tracker above.
Tadej Pogacar wins stage six
16:37 , Lawrence Ostlere
The two superstars of this Tour de France salute one another:
Jonas Vingegaard takes the yellow jersey
16:34 , Lawrence Ostlere
That was great fun. Vingegaard now leads the Tour de France by 25 seconds from Pogacar. Jai Hindley is third at +1min 34sec, and no one else is within three minutes.
Stage six – top five finishers
16:29 , Lawrence Ostlere
1. Tadej Pogacar2. Jonas Vingegaard, at 23’’3. Tobias Halland Johannessen, à 1’22’’4. Ruben Guerreiro 2’06’’5. James Shaw, 2’15’’
Tadej Pogacar wins stage six
16:28 , Lawrence Ostlere
Take a look at that ruthless attack:
Tadej Pogacar wins stage six
16:26 , Lawrence Ostlere
Jai Hindley comes in two and a half minutes down on the leaders – he will give up the yellow jersey to Jonas Vingegaard. Pogacar will be second in the general classification, about half a minute down on the Danish reigning champion. What a Tour we have in store now.
Tadej Pogacar wins stage six!
16:23 , Lawrence Ostlere
What an assault by Pogacar! He wins stage six with that unmatchable solo attack to the summit at Cauterets. Vingegaard comes home 23 or 24 seconds down, as well as some time bonus too.
Tour de France stage six – Pogacar closes in on finish line
16:22 , Lawrence Ostlere
400m to go: The road flattens out and this will suit Pogacar nicely – he is going to sprint to the line…
Tour de France stage six – Pogacar passes flamme rouge in front
16:21 , Lawrence Ostlere
1km to go: Pogacar passes the flamme rouge with a 15 second lead over Vingegaard now…
Tour de France stage six – Pogacar pushes on towards stage win
16:20 , Lawrence Ostlere
1.5km to go: Vingegaard has done brilliantly to keep in touch – the gap is down to only seven seconds – but Pogacar is surely going to win the stage…
Tour de France stage six – Pogacar leaves Vingegaard behind
16:19 , Lawrence Ostlere
2km to go: Wow, what an attack by Pogacar. He looked cooked yesterday; now he looks unbeatable. He leaves Vingegaard about 10 seconds back down the mountain – can he increase the gap before the finish?
Tour de France stage six – Pogacar attacks!
16:17 , Lawrence Ostlere
3km to go: Pogacar remains locked on Vingegaard’s wheel. This is calm, sensible stuff from the Slovenian two-time champion, who usually takes the showman option… but now Pogacar attacks!
Tour de France stage six
16:15 , Lawrence Ostlere
3.5km to go: Vingegaard continues to keep a steady pace, and he glances back to see if Pogacar wants to attack and take the lead – Pogacar declines. That is not in his nature, to be defensive, but tactically it is the right move. He can save his legs for the top and beat Vingegaard to the win and the bonus seconds. Kwiatkowski falls back, unable to keep up.
Tour de France stage six – Vingegaard attacks!
16:12 , Lawrence Ostlere
4km to go: Van Aert pulls aside and Vingegaard accelarates! Pogacar is the only one of the lead group who can keep with him, and Vingegaard sees that and slows down. Kwiatkowski takes the opportunity to bridge back to the front two, and it’s now a three.
Tour de France stage six
16:10 , Lawrence Ostlere
5km to go: The yellow jersey group of Jai Hindley and a bunch of other riders are about two and a half minutes behind the leaders, who remain locked on Van Aert’s wheel.
Tour de France stage six – Van Aert awarded combativity prize
16:05 , Lawrence Ostlere
7.5km to go: In news that won’t shock anybody, Wout van Aert has won the day’s combativity prize for the most aggressive rider.
Tour de France stage six – Powless loses contact
16:03 , Lawrence Ostlere
8.5km to go: Van Aert looks so strong. What a phenomenal performance by the Belgian, once again, who has been attacking on the front all day, having also challenged for sprints and hilly stages earlier this week. The definition of an elite all-rounder.
His pace is forcing Neilson Powless to lose contact with the leaders. So the front eight becomes seven:
Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X), Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar), James Shaw (EF Education), Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos), Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates).
Tour de France stage six
15:59 , Lawrence Ostlere
10km to go: So what is going to unfold at the front? At some point soon Wout van Aert is going to step aside and let Vingegaard attack, you would think. Pogacar will try to follow – he failed to do so yesterday, but he looks strong and composed right now.
Can any of the rest of this group challenge the big two for the stage win? Michael Kwiatkowski has lots of experience in these scenarios and Ruben Guerreiro is a strong climber. But the realistic answer is, no.
Tour de France stage six
15:55 , Lawrence Ostlere
12km to go: The road isn’t too steep right now but legs must be starting to burn after such a brutal day at the end of a tough opening week to this Tour de France. The second group are about three minutes behind the lead pack, and the yellow jersey of Jai Hindley is in there. He will still have big ambitions for the podium, despite losing yellow today, and that is the battle in that second group now.
Emannuel Buchmann, Simon and Adam Yates and David Gaudu are all in that second group and have designs on a high GC placing.
Tour de France stage six – front group begin final cimb
15:49 , Lawrence Ostlere
16km to go: Wout van Aert leads the front eight on to the final climb. It doesn’t start too sharp but it tips up over 10% gradient near the top, where you would think we will see a Pogacar-Vingegaard showdown.
Tour de France stage six – lead groups merge
15:39 , Lawrence Ostlere
23km to go: So there are now eight riders at the front…
Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X), Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar), James Shaw (EF Education), Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos), Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) and Neilson Powless (EF Education).
Van Aert is the man on the front, pulling them along.
Tour de France stage six – group two closing in on leaders
15:37 , Lawrence Ostlere
25km to go: The chasers – Van Aert, Vingegaard, Pogacar and Powless – are closing in on the front quartet (Johannessen, Guerreiro, Shaw, Kwiatkowski) as they all near the foot of the final climb to the summit finish at Cauterets. The gap between the groups is down to about 20 seconds and it seems they will soon be climbing all together.
The winner of this stage is almost certainly among these eight riders.
Tour de France stage six
15:29 , Lawrence Ostlere
35km to go: As it stands, Vingegaard will take the yellow jersey from the shoulders of Jai Hindley, who was left behind on the Tourmalet when Jumbo-Visma upped the pace.
Tour de France stage six – two groups of four lead the way
15:25 , Lawrence Ostlere
38km to go: So, a quick summary.
Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X), Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar), James Shaw (EF Education) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos) are flying down the descent from the Tourmalet towards the foot of the final climb to the summit finish.
About 30 seconds behind them is the group containing Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) and Neilson Powless (EF Education).
Tour de France stage six
15:17 , Mike Jones
47 km to go: Wout van Aert leads until the final 100m of the climb before Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X) takes the maximum 20 points in the king of the mountains classification. He went through a bit of jostling with Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar) but pipped him at the line.
Vingegaard and Pogacar crest the mountain just 43 seconds behind them.
Tour de France stage six
15:12 , Mike Jones
48km to go: Sepp Kuss has done his job for Jumbo-Visma teammate Jonas Vingegaard and drops away leaving a two horse battle between the reigning champion and Tadej Pogacar.
Up ahead the breakaway group are entering the final kilometre of the Col du Tourmalet.
Tour de France stage six
15:08 , Mike Jones
49km to go: Jai Hindley can’t keep up with Jumbo-Visma and Pogacar so drops back to the peloton. Wout van Aert is working hard for his teammates in the breakaway.
Jonas Vingegaard is going to be the favourite to win this stage right now.
Under two kilometres to go for the leaders until they crest the Tourmalet.
Tour de France stage six
15:05 , Mike Jones
50km to go: Oh wow. Jumbo-Visma and Jonas Vingegaard make their move to attack over the top of the Tourmalet. Tadej Pogacar and Jai Hindley stick with them with around five km for this group to go before the summit.
Tour de France stage six
15:01 , Mike Jones
51km to go: Four kilometres to until the summit of Col du Tourmalet. The breakaway has lost a few members and is now down to just 10 riders which includes Wout van Aert, Julian Alaphilippe and Neilson Powless.
Powless and Alaphilippe will be competing for the KOM points.
Tour de France stage six
14:57 , Mike Jones
Tour de France stage six
14:53 , Mike Jones
53 km to go: The breakaway is hitting the more difficult parts of the climb now and the peloton has reduced the time gap to under four minutes.
Wout van Aert is controlling the pace and tempo of the leaders once again.
Tour de France stage six
14:42 , Mike Jones
56.5km to go: Jai Hindley has a near miss as one of his Bora-Hansgrohe helpers tried to pass him a water bottle and dropped it. It bounced in between the wheels of the yellow jersey holder who breathes a sigh of relief and carries on up the mountain.
Shaw and Alaphilippe are drawn back into the breakaway pack as they didn’t try to work together to stay out front.
Tour de France stage six
14:37 , Mike Jones
58 km to go: Now then! Julian Alaphilippe kicks on and tries to some pace into the climb from the front of the peloton. James Shaw is up their with him but there’s a long, long way to go to the summit.
11km in fact.
Tour de France stage six
14:36 , Mike Jones
59 km to go: Here is the virtual KOM classification after Col d’Aspin:
1. Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), 30
2. Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citröen), 28
3. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), 19
4. Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), 18
5. Daniel Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers), 15
That could all change by the time they get to the top of the Tourmalet though.
Tour de France stage six
14:29 , Mike Jones
62 km to go: The breakaway has gone through a few kilometres in the long, arduous climb up the Col du Tourmalet. This trek is both gruelling and thrilling.
Wout van Aert, ever the competitor, is at the front. No surprises there.
Tour de France stage six
14:25 , Mike Jones
65 km to go: The main attraction of this stage is the Col du Tourmalet. It’s a 17.1km climb up the iconic mountain which has an average gradient of 7.3%.
The gap between the breakaway leaders and the peloton is now up to four minutes 25 seconds. We’ll see how this climb goes to determine where this stage winner will come from.
Tour de France stage six
14:22 , Mike Jones
67 km to go: American Neilson Powless moves back to the top of the King of the Mountains standings, taking the virtual polka dot jersey from Felix Gall. He said before the day that the KOM point were his target for stage six.
“I felt pretty good yesterday. I was just riding the wrong wave and missed the move.
“Today, I want to at least stay in the game a little bit. It depends. Felix Gall is a super strong climber, so it’ll be hard to take it off his shoulders. Today’s a really good opportunity for points but also a stage win.”
Tour de France stage six
14:18 , Mike Jones
71 km to go: The breakaway flies down the descent as the peloton crests the top of Col d’Aspin. They’ve held the time gap at around 3’20” over the course of the category 1 mountain and seen well placed to catch up on the Tourmalet.
Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert take to the front on the downhill.
Tour de France stage six
14:14 , Mike Jones
76.8 km to go: Here we go then. Inside the final 500m for the climb up Col d’Aspin. Wout van Aert still has the lead across the 6% gradient.
Neilson Powless is on his wheel and bursts into the lead with 100m to go. He crosses the line and takes the maximum points in the KOM battle.
It’s been a good day for him and he’s back in the lead for the polka dot jersey.
Tour de France stage six
14:07 , Mike Jones
79km to go: Jumbo-Visma are making a move. As they take to the front of the peloton, Wout van Aert, their man in the breakaway, blitzes to the head of the whole field too.
Van Aert steps on the pedal and takes charge with 2.2km to go until the top of the Col d’Aspin.
Tour de France stage six
14:03 , Mike Jones
80km to go: Bora-Hansgrohe continue to control the peloton from the front and are holding the time gap to the breakaway at around 3’23”.
The peloton is stuck into the climb up Col d’Aspin now with the leading group having a touch over 3km left to the summit.
Tour de France stage six
13:59 , Mike Jones
81.5 km to go: Benoît Cosnefroy can’t keep up with the pace of the breakaway as the group flies up the hill. Further back Fabio Jakobsen is dropped by the peloton and escorted by a few team-mates.
The European champion heavily crashed during the sprint on stage 4 and needs some help to get back into the main pack.
Tour de France stage six
13:55 , Mike Jones
82 km to go: The second half of the Col d’Aspin reaches gradients of around 9% which is gruelling on the legs. Even more so with the knowledge that the harder, longer and steeper Col du Tourmalet is still to come.
Tour de France stage six
13:50 , Mike Jones
85km to go: The kilometres are no longer flying by as the Col d’Aspin takes its toll on the leaders. They’re through four kilometres already.
It’s the 76th time for the peloton of the Tour de France to climb to Col d’Aspin.
Octave Lapize was first to crest in first position in 1910 and the lhe last person was Thibaut Pinot last year. The Frenchman is in the peloton right now but the second last “winner” of Col d’Aspin (in 2018) was his compatriot Julian Alaphilippe, who’s part of the breakaway.
Tour de France stage six
13:48 , Mike Jones
Tour de France stage six
13:44 , Mike Jones
87km to go: The Col d’Aspin is a category 1 mountain with a 12km climb at an average gradient of 6.5%. The final six-four kilometres are by far the worst part of this one for the riders.
The front of the breakaway hits the base of the climb with a lead of three minutes 22 seconds over the peloton. If the stage winner is to come from the breakaway today they need to increase that time gap by the end of this mountain.
Tour de France stage six
13:41 , Mike Jones
89 km to go: Here’s the tntermediate sprint result in full:
1. Bryan Coquard, 20 pts
2. Wout van Aert, 17 pts
3. Mathieu van der Poel, 15 pts
4. Jonas Gregaard, 13 pts
5. Anthony Perez, 11 pts
6. Oliver Naesen, 10 pts
7. Matteo Trentin, 9 pts
8. Neilson Powless, 8 pts
9. Nikias Arndt, 7 pts
10. Michal Kwiatkowski, 6 pts
11. Matîs Louvel, 5 pts
12. James Shaw, 4 pts
13. Gorka Izagirre, 3 pts
14. Chris Juul Jensen, 2 pts
15. Krists Neilands, 1 pt
Tour de France stage six
13:37 , Mike Jones
92km to go: Bryan Coquard takes the maximum 20 points in the sprint classification (green jersey) for Cofidis. With two big mountains to come in the stage that’s his work for the day done and dusted.
He won’t be in contention to win the stage so don’t be surprised if he drops back to the peloton at some stage.
Tour de France stage six
13:33 , Mike Jones
96km to go: Those in the breakaway are positioning themselves ahead of the intermediate sprint. Wou van Aert is never the front but has previously said he isn’t interested in the green jersey.
Bryan Coquard is let through by Van Aert who takes to his back wheel and follows him over the line. Coquard takes the points for the sprint.
Tour de France stage six
13:28 , Mike Jones
100km to go: Bora-Hansgrohe have upped the tempo at the front of the peloton and are holding the gap between them and the breakaway at three minutes.
That will be cut sharply once the leading riders reach the next mountain climb.
Tour de France stage six
13:24 , Mike Jones
104km to go: A radio message from team TotalEnergies is very revealing. They are not happy. None of their riders went with the breakaway and the team officials are not impressed.
Tour de France stage six
13:17 , Mike Jones
106km to go: The time gap between the breakaway and the pelation atop Cote de Capvern-les-Bains is three minutes 15 seconds. Which is a decent lead but nothing too worrisome for the GC riders in the main pack.
The next challege is the intermediate sprint at Sarrancolin.
Tour de France stage six
13:13 , Mike Jones
111km to go: Today is the second time team Bora-Hansgrohe have the yellow jersey.
In 2018, Peter Sagan took it after winning stage 2 in La Roche-sur-Yon and wore it during the team time trial in Cholet. It was also the tenth Tour de France stage win for Bora-Hansgrohe yesterday.
The German team is taking part in the Tour de France for the tenth consecutive time.
Now they have all kind of individual stage victories: in bunch sprints, flat and uphill, with Peter Sagan (5), ITT with Maciej Bodnar in Marseille in 2017, from breakaways in medium difficulty stages with Lennard Kämna, Nils Politt and Patrick Konrad, and a mountain stage with Jai Hindley.
Tour de France stage six
13:08 , Mike Jones
115 km to go: There’s 250 metres left until the top of the Cote de Capvern-les-Bains, Neilson Powless takes the the front as they reach the peak and he claims a couple of points in the King of the Mountains battle.
Kasper Asgreen takes one point.
Tour de France stage six
13:00 , Mike Jones
118 km to go: The Cote de Capvern-les-Bains is the first of today’s climbs. It’s a 5.6km uphill category 3 with a gradient of 4.8%. Not the most difficult of the mountains today and one that the breakaway should handle without too much trouble.
Tour de France stage six
12:58 , Mike Jones
120km to go: Five riders, Neilson Powless (EF-Education EasyPost), Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-Quick Step), Oliver Naesen (AG2R-Citröen), Anthony Perez (Cofidis) and Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar) have closed the gapt to the breakaway which now sits at 20 riders.
Meanwhile in the peloton Bora-Hansgrohe are at the front setting the pace. Yellow jersey holder Jai Hindley rides for this team.
Tour de France stage six
12:50 , Mike Jones
125km to go: Most of the general classification riders, including Jonas Vingegaard, haven’t left the pelaton but they’ll still be favourites for the stage win.
The first of the climbs today arrives in 10km.
Tour de France stage six
12:47 , Mike Jones
Tour de France stage six
12:44 , Mike Jones
130km to go: The breakaway is now over two minutes ahead of the pelaton with a second group of chasers just 47 seconds behind the leaders.
Here’s the list of riders out front: Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates), Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step), Nikias Arndt (Bahrain Victorious), Benoît Cosnefroy (Ag2r-Citröen), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), Gorka Izagirre (Movistar), Krists Neilands (Israel-PremierTech), Chris Juul-Jensen (Jayco-AlUla), Matîs Louvel (Arkéa-Samsic), Tobias Halland Johannessen and Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X).
Tour de France stage six
12:38 , Mike Jones
135km to go: UAE Team Emirates have managed to grab a place in that leading group with Matteo Trentin joining them when the gap was cut to eight seconds.
Also up there are among them are Mathieu van de Poel and Christopher Juul-Jensen.
Tour de France stage six
12:36 , Mike Jones
Have a watch of Wout van Aert’s blazing start. He was the main leader in getting the breakaway clear at the depart reel:
Tour de France stage six
12:35 , Mike Jones
137km to go: The pace of the pelaton starts to increase and the gap between them and the breakaway cuts to eight seconds.
Alaphilippe moves to the front of the field and puts the pedal down in an effort to get the breakaway even clearer. His efforts pay off as they hit a slight decline and the gap starts opening up once again.
Tour de France stage six
12:31 , Mike Jones
141 km to go: There are quite a few riders in the breakaway with Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step) among them. I can count nine of them in the leading pack with a line of three to four stragglers behind them.
The pelaton is already 14 seconds behind and that gap is increasing.
Depart reel
12:28 , Mike Jones
And they’re off!
Wout van Aert flies straight to the front of the field and leads a breakaway of about 10 or so riders. The Jumbo-Visma is an explosive rider and he’ll be close to the front for most of this early part of the day.
Tour de France stage six
12:26 , Mike Jones
The crowds were out in Tarbes to watch the pelaton depart the city for the start of stage six. This will be an exciting day’s riding with more than a few tactics in play as they cross the mountains.
Tadej Pogacar on his Tour so far
12:22 , Mike Jones
The two-time Tour de France winner, Tadej Pogacar spoke to Eurosport about how his 2023 Tour has been developing so far. Asked where things have gone awry so far, he replied:
“Maybe small details – a little bit of everything. The shape is here but I think the next days I can be even better.
“Jonas [Vingegaard] was super strong yesterday. I think he would have made a gap anyway. We’ll see the next days if I can respond. I’m good.”
Jai Hindley leads the Tour
12:19 , Mike Jones
Jai Hindley is a Tour de France debutant and will wear the yellow jersey for the first time after his solo win at Laruns yesterday. He has an advantage of 47 seconds over defending champion Jonas Vingeagaard and 1’03’’ over Giulio Ciccone.
Former race leader Adam Yates is 1’34’’ down in fifth with double overall winner Tadej Pogacar 1’40’’ behind in sixth place.
Tour de France stage six
12:14 , Mike Jones
The riders have set off towards the depart reel with an easy and casual ride through Tarbes. They’re 7km away from where the route officially begins and should take about 10 minutes or so to get there.
Tour de France stage six
12:12 , Mike Jones
Tarbes hosts a start for the 13th time.
The last time was for stage 14 of 2019 tour. At the finish atop the Tourmalet, Thibaut Pinot won from Julian Alaphilippe and Steven Kruijswijk.
That was also the last win to date at the Tour for Pinot.
Weather outlook
12:09 , Mike Jones
At around 25 degrees celsius, it’s hot in Tarbes where the pelaton sets off for the day’s ride. Things should get cooler as the progress through the 145km route and there is a chance of rain later in the afternoon.
A risk of thunderstorms is a real possibility by the time they reach the Tourmalet.
General classification after stage five
12:06 , Mike Jones
1. Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) 22hrs 15mins 12secs
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) +47secs
3. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +1min 03secs
4. Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) +1min 11secs
5. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) +1min 34secs
6. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) +1min 40secs
7. Simon Yates (Team Jayco-Alula) + 1min 40secs
8. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +1min 56secs
9. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Ineos Grenadiers) +1min 56secs
10. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +1 min 56secs
How Mark Cavendish became a Tour de France legend – according to his fierce rivals and loyal teammates
12:03 , Mike Jones
Mark Cavendish once gave me the look.
It was an interview in a hotel lobby in Yorkshire; he was slightly late and apologised profusely, then answered questions about the Tour de France with enthusiasm and detail.
For some reason, I thought 10 minutes of flowing conversation made me his trusted confidant, so I looked him in the eyes and asked: how much do you want to break Eddy Merckx’s Tour stage record? He shrugged it off. But what would it mean to you? He went quiet. Wouldn’t it crown your legacy?
The look was somewhere in the venn diagram of anger and disdain, and I half expected him to walk off. He stayed, but in that brief moment I felt the gentlest prod of his famous spikiness. Cavendish was once asked what he’d learned from a difficult day on the bike. “That journalists sometimes ask some stupid f***ing questions,” he replied.
How Mark Cavendish became a Tour de France legend – according to rivals and teammates
Cavendish ready for stage six
11:56 , Mike Jones
Mark Cavendish is looking forward to today’s stage but knows this isn’t one for him to excel. Cavendish is famously a sprinter and positions himself near the front when a stage sets up for a tight, racing finish.
Today’s route is the opposite. It’s all about mountains, climbing and timing your moves perfectly. Not ideal for the sprinters in the pelaton.
Jai Hindley wins Tour de France stage five to take yellow jersey
11:49 , Mike Jones
Jai Hindley won stage five of the Tour de France in Laruns to take the yellow jersey from Adam Yates and Jonas Vingegaard rode clear of rival Tadej Pogacar as an early trip to the Pyrenees ripped up the general classification.
Hindley, winner of last year’s Giro d’Italia, marked himself out as a major contender with a breakaway victory but surely more important was the sight of defending champion Vingegaard leaving behind two-time winner Pogacar on the final climb to make his case as the favourite to be in yellow come Paris.
Having gone clear from the last of his fellow escapees on the final climb of the Col de Marie Blanque, Hindley soloed into Laruns to take the win by 32 seconds, with Vingegaard coming home at the back of a four-strong group that was second on the road.
Jai Hindley wins Tour de France stage five to take yellow jersey
Stage 6 map and profile
11:44 , Mike Jones
A breakdown of today’s 145km route:
First comes a small category three climb before an intermediate sprint, which may well be contested by the riders interested in the green jersey – Jasper Philipsen is in a strong position in the points classification after winning back-to-back sprints.
Then comes the Col d’Aspin (12% at 6.5%) which so often precedes the Tourmalet (17.1km at 7.3%), the Tour’s most visited climb which will take the peloton over 2,000m high.
A long, fast descent follows before the climb to Cauterets (16km at 5.4%), a long drag that will be draining on the legs after such a tough first week.
Stage six start time and prediction
11:40 , Mike Jones
The stage is set to begin at around 12.20pm BST and is expected to finish at around 4.20pm.
Prediction: Jonas Vingegaard should put down the hammer on the climb to Cauterets and take the stage win.
Jersey standings ahead of stage six
11:37 , Mike Jones
There has been plenty of changes in the jersey standings following the conclusion of stage five with both the yellow and polka-dot jersey changing hands.
Here’s who will wear the jersey this afternoon:
Yellow: Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe)
White: Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)
Green: Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
Polka Dot: Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citroën)
Tour de France 2023 stage 6 preview: Route map and profile of 145km from Tarbes to Cauterets via the Tourmalet
11:32 , Mike Jones
The 2023 Tour de France ignited on Tuesday’s stage five as Australia’s Jai Hindley stormed into the yellow jersey and reigning champion Jonas Vingegaard dominated his main rival Tadej Pogacar. Hindley escaped in the breakaway and both Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma and Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates took too long to close the gap, allowing the Bora-Hansgrohe rider to push on alone and claim a brilliant solo win.
With it, Hindley jumped to the top of the general classification and took the yellow jersey from Adam Yates, who caught up to the struggling two-time champion and UAE team leader Pogacar, and they finished together more than a minute and a half behind Hindley and a minute down on the ominously strong Vingegaard.
Stage six goes deeper into the high Pyrenees, and the peloton will climb the iconic Col du Tourmalet en route to the first summit finish of the Tour in Cauterets.
Tour de France stage 6 preview: Iconic Tourmalet sets up yellow jersey fight
