Pogacar steals Van Aert’s thunder in ferocious stage

DEFENDING champion Tadej Pogacar powered clear to win stage six of the Tour de France and take the overall lead after the peloton denied Wout van Aert what would have been a remarkable solo victory in the yellow jersey.

Arguably the two most exciting talents in the men’s peloton dominated the story on the longest stage of this year’s Tour, 220km between Binche, Belgium and Longwy that were raced at a ferocious pace, an average speed of 49km an hour seeing the peloton get home half an hour earlier than predicted.

For the first 210km it was all about Van Aert on what would be his last day in yellow, the Belgian driving the pace on home roads as he powered the breakaway clear, then emerging as the last survivor as he tried to take on the peloton alone for the final 30km. But after he was reeled in 10km from Longwy – sitting up and finishing some seven minutes down – Pogacar took over, following a late attack from fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglic up the short final climb and then powering away from Michael Matthews to take a win he was able to celebrate short of the line.

The Ineos Grenadiers’ Tour debutant Tom Pidcock came home fourth just ahead of teammates Adam Yates and Geraint Thomas, but all were left trailing in the wake of Pogacar.

“Every time I win it’s even better,” the UAE Team Emirates rider said. “Today was so hard from the start. The first two hours were crazy and the strongest guy went in the breakaway. Lots of guys were pulling and in the end the peloton was stronger. When we came to the climbs I was feeling good and the team did an incredibly good job of bringing me to the perfect position so I’m happy.”