Tour de France peloton stunned by Pogačar dominance: "I can’t understand how you can be so strong"

Tadej Pogačar took complete control of the Tour de France on Thursday with a devastating victory on stage 6. Behind the Slovenian, exhausted riders crossed the finish line one after another. Some were gasping for breath, others simply shook their heads, but their reactions all carried the same message: one rider is operating far above the rest.

Jonas Vingegaard, the man who came closest to matching Pogačar — if it can even be described that way — was honest in his analysis. “I couldn’t follow and had to ride at my own pace,” said the Dane, who reached the finish two minutes and 38 seconds behind Pogačar.

Another 175 riders followed Vingegaard across the line, ending with Lewis Askey at 45 minutes and 24 seconds. By 12th place, the gap had already grown beyond eight minutes. That group included riders such as Ilan Van Wilder of Soudal Quick-Step and Tom Pidcock of Pinarello-Q36.5, while Richard Carapaz of EF Education-EasyPost finished shortly afterwards.

Van Wilder had already experienced the difference during the Tour de Suisse, but he was still stunned by the damage inflicted by UAE Team Emirates-XRG in the Pyrenees. “I don’t understand it. I really find it difficult to understand how you can be so dominant,” Van Wilder told Sporza. “I heard he rode solo for… what, 40 kilometres? Pfff. I can’t get my head around it. But it was a fantastic performance from Pogačar.”

“It was absolutely terrible. It was hot again and, from the start, everyone went full gas trying to get into the breakaway, but it just wouldn’t go. Suddenly, we were already at the foot of the Aspin. At that point, you know the whole day is going to be brutal.

“The pace on the Aspin was already scorching, and the peloton was immediately torn apart,” Van Wilder continued. “Then, on the Tourmalet, they started riding at an unbelievably hard tempo that I couldn’t handle. I chose to ride at my own pace and surprisingly caught quite a few riders afterwards. That allowed me to reach Pidcock’s group and later the group containing Carapaz.”

Valentin Paret-Peintre had attempted to collect mountains-classification points for Soudal Quick-Step on the Col d’Aspin, but he too eventually had to concede defeat. “It’s incredible. The work done by UAE was incredible,” the Frenchman told Cyclism’Actu. “They managed to keep the peloton together, so hats off to them. Pogačar is really on another planet, and today I think he showed everyone who the boss is.”

The mood was similar at EF Education-EasyPost, where American rider Sean Quinn had quietly hoped he might be able to take the yellow jersey. “The plan this morning was to race for Richie, as usual, but I also wanted to give it everything and see whether I could take yellow,” Quinn explained. “But I had a terrible day — a truly awful day. I fought all the way to the finish, but I lost a huge amount of time.”

“It is what it is. I tried, and I can be proud of the effort, even though I’m not proud of the result. Pogačar’s a good bike rider, so I’ll take the L,” the American added. Alex Baudin, another EF Education-EasyPost rider, lost the polka-dot jersey to Pogačar after the Slovenian’s dominant performance. “I lost the jersey, but in the end, I had more or less expected that,” Baudin admitted. “Considering what UAE did today, there was nothing more we could do. They shut down every attack.”

Julian Alaphilippe was among the riders who eventually found themselves in the gruppetto. Seven years earlier, the Frenchman had still been competing at the sharp end of the race on the Tourmalet, but his reaction to Pogačar’s latest display was perhaps the most telling of all. “Pogačar? Nothing surprises me anymore,” said the two-time world champion to Cyclism'Actu. “No, not even the time gaps. Nothing surprises me anymore.”

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]