Pogacar breaks Tourmalet ascent record, descends at over 100 km/h to take Tour lead on stage 6

Pogacar’s stage 6 masterclass

Tadej Pogacar attacked early on the climb to the Tourmalet, 43 kilometres from the finish. The UAE Team Emirates leader broke clear and never looked back. He completed the ascent in 43 minutes and 12 seconds, a full 2 minutes and 20 seconds faster than the previous best set by himself and Jonas Vingegaard in 2023. On the descent, his speed exceeded 100 kilometres per hour, as the race’s official account later confirmed. Pogacar swept through the final gentle climb into Gavarnie-Gèdre for his 23rd Tour de France stage victory and reclaimed the yellow jersey.

Tourmalet ascent shattered

The new mark wiped out the 45:37 time shared by Tony Rominger and Zenon Jaskula in 1993 and by Pogacar and Vingegaard in 2023. El Mundo reported that the Slovenian had beaten the 2023 record by 2 minutes 20 seconds. That improvement is the largest single-stage gain in the modern era of the Tour’s most mythologised climb. Pogacar’s pace averaged 23.61 km/h on the ascent, but the record-breaking part was the sustained power output in the final kilometres, where he dropped Vingegaard by 30 seconds by the summit.

Overall standings reshuffled

After the stage, Pogacar grabbed the yellow jersey with a lead of 2 minutes 42 seconds over Vingegaard. Isaac del Toro, his UAE teammate, moved into third at 3:27 and also took the white jersey for best young rider. Remco Evenepoel sat fourth at 3:30, followed by Juan Ayuso (+3:34, four seconds behind the Belgian), French prodigy Paul Seixas at 3:55, and Florian Lipowitz at 4:00. The previous leader, Torstein Traen of Norway, crashed on the Tourmalet descent and tumbled out of the top positions.

Reactions from the peloton

Pogacar later described a morning of nervous energy.

I woke up at seven, very nervous, and told my mother we would blow up the race. We didn’t expect such gaps and the leader fell, which cost him the jersey. I would have liked him to keep it. The plan was to give everything, whatever happened. We could have exploded, but it went well.

Vingegaard was subdued.

It wasn’t the day I wanted. He attacked hard on the Tourmalet, I was 30 seconds back at the top, but a descent like that doesn’t suit me.

French president Emmanuel Macron, visiting the race, reportedly exclaimed “Incredible!”.

Historic comparisons and what’s next

The Spanish press drew immediate parallels with Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil and Miguel Induráin. Pogacar, now 27, is approaching a fifth Tour de France victory, a feat only those four legends have achieved. One columnist wrote that the Slovenian had “sentenced his fifth Tour”, noting his early aggression mirrors the cannibalistic style of Merckx. Pogacar himself shrugged off the comparisons, saying he draws inspiration from Usain Bolt and Novak Djokovic’s mental toughness. With more mountain stages ahead, his team’s strategy of controlling the race looks even more formidable. But the Tour is long, and Pogacar recalled his 2023 crash in Liège as a reminder to stay cautious, even when everything appears perfect.