New scare for Pogacar
With just under 80 kilometres to go in Dijon, the Yellow Jersey had a scare, isolated in a small peloton of 50 units while all his teammates were trapped by the echelon attempted by Visma-Lease a bike. If, for about ten kilometres, the Slovenian had no support, it was without consequence after UAE made the junction. But as he recalled, the Tour is never over: “It’s an example of what can happen. It was a rather stressful day but I’m happy that the stage wasn’t too long.”
Visma and Vingegaard at the helm
At the start, sports director Frans Maassen promised “a tense day, where someone can lose the Tour”, due to the risk of a pass. It was no surprise, then, to see Wout Van Aert and Christophe Laporte at the head of the peloton at 85 kilometres, when the wind made itself felt in the middle of the vineyards. Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a bikes, in number at the front, managed to isolate Pogacar and split the peloton in two.
But the move did not last and therefore did not have the desired effect. At the end of the stage, Wout Van Aert tried to play his card in the sprint. But he was pushed back by Jasper Philipsen (later demoted) and had a scare. “I think everyone saw that I could have done a better result, but I had to stop fighting,” he regretted at the finish, finally 6th.
Evenepoel wary before the clock
Asked on the eve of this sixth stage about the next day’s time trial, Tom Steels, Remco Evenepoel’s sports director, warned: “It’s not easy today already. That’s never the case on the Tour de France.” And he was right: the echelon 80 km from the finish could have trapped the Belgian from Soudal-QuickStep if it weren’t for the wariness of his staff. Evenepoel found himself rather at the back and quite alone, but still in the first group. No stress, then, which is ideal on the eve of this time trial that he particularly recognized, ticked off, and of which he is the huge favorite according to all the riders and sports directors.
Roglic was not surprised
In a windswept flat stage, the only risk the Slovenian champion ran was being surprised by a echelon. Visma tried to trap some of the leaders of the peloton by accelerating the pace in a particularly exposed place, 80 km from the finish, notably managing to isolate Tadej Pogacar, but Primoz Roglic was not caught by the maneuver.
The leader of Red Bull Bora-Handsgrohe therefore had another fairly quiet day, which did not sap his strength on the eve of the first time trial of the Tour between Nuits-Saint-Georges and Gevrey-Chambertin. He finished the stage well sheltered in the peloton, in 58th place, and thus retains 5th place in the general classification, 1’14 behind his compatriot Pogacar.
