Pogačar gives Visma | Lease a Bike some tactical advice: 'Need to decide which rider they want to go with'

Wout van Aert was part of the day’s breakaway on stage 6. But in a stage that seemed to favor the breakaway riders, Tadej Pogačar once again robbed them of the full prize. The Slovenian claimed his third stage victory and also extended his lead in the battle for the green jersey. Van Aert did manage to win an intermediate sprint, but he knows it’s going to be tough against the red jersey wearer. The latter sees a bit of a problem at Visma | Lease a Bike.

After the stage, Pogačar said he wanted to let the breakaway go, but that it took a long time for it to form. “In the end, we knew we needed less than half the stage to control the race,” he concluded. UAE Team Emirates-XRG rode up to the breakaway group. Pogačar then accelerated on the final climb and managed to claim the stage victory.

This meant he pulled away from all his rivals—except for the rock-solid Enric Mas—and it also meant he picked up another twenty points in the race for the green jersey. This brings his total to 102 points, but Van Aert also won an intermediate sprint along the way. That was worth the same number of points, so the Belgian moved up to second place in the points classification, meaning he’ll start stage seven in the green jersey.

"Scoring those points ended up being the main goal for today, because we didn't get much space up front," Van Aert says on his team's website. " I quickly realised that the breakaway wasn't going to be given much room. It would have been nice to fight for the stage win, but that wasn't on the cards. It won't be easy to overtake Pogačar in the points classification. Of course, he won the stage today and picked up some extra points."

The gap between Pogačar and Van Aert currently stands at 33 points. Visma | Lease a Bike also has Matthew Brennan in third place (60 points), while Christophe Laporte (52 points) is fifth in the points classification. The Belgian is the only one openly aiming for the green jersey, but shouldn’t Visma | Lease a Bike adjust their strategy somewhat?

That’s what Pogačar is suggesting. He could also win Stage 7, while the intermediate sprint is in a rather unfavorable spot for someone like Van Aert, 27 kilometers from the finish. Pogačar thinks Visma | Lease a Bike needs to take a moment to think things over. “They’re going with two riders from the team competing for the green jersey,” he tells Sporza. “There are so many points up for grabs along the way, and there are still 15 stages to go. They need to decide which rider they want to go with to win the jersey.”