tour de france 2023 stage 6 live

Live coverage

As it happened: pogačar wins tour de france stage 6, vingegaard takes yellow.

Hindley wears yellow, Vingegaard carries momentum, Pogačar looks to respond

Tour de France 2023 – Analysing the contenders

Tour de France 2023 - the definitive guide

Tour de France: Jai Hindley wins stage 5 as Vingegaard drops Pogačar in Pyrenees

How to watch stages 5, 6 and 7 of the Tour de France

Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of stage 6 of the 2023 Tour de France, 144.9km from Tarbes to Cauterets-Cambasque.

We had a brutal baptism of fire in the Pyrenees yesterday and today is set to be much of the same for the riders. The general classification saw a dramatic switch up with Jai Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe) winning the stage into Laruns and taking the yellow jersey. Defending Tour de France champion, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), also delivered a heavy blow to his key rival and two-time Tour winner, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), who he now holds an advantage of 53 seconds over. Will the Dane smell blood and try and build an even bigger advantage today?

We're just under an hour away from the neutralised start in Tarbes at 13:10 CEST, before the waving of the flag and official start at 13:25 CEST.

There's no respite after the pain endured yesterday with an even more difficult stage on the cards. 4000m of elevation over four categorised climbs and the first summit finish of the 2023 race. It's only stage 6. All of the 172 riders that started yesterday finished well within the time limit so we should get the same number setting off today barring any late incidents. 

Here's Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) bringing the good vibes at the start in Tarbes. He'll be back in the groupetto today waiting for his next chance to sprint on tomorrow's stage into Bordeaux. 

🌞 Love @MarkCavendish optimism. How can you not love him ?🌞Comment ne pas aimer @MarkCavendish #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/l75tk0mk1G July 6, 2023

The riders are completing sign ons and the team presentation before we get underway with a neutralised start. 

It's all smiles for Hindley at the start location in his new yellow jersey.

We're underway from the neutralised start in Tarbres. There's just under 8km of riding before the flag is waved and racing gets started on stage 6 of the Tour de France. 

Today's first 20km will be the flattest of the day before we get into the first and easiest of our four categorised climbs. 

Early mechanical issues for Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X), who required a wheel change in the neutral zone. He'll be making his way back in now. 

One of Cyclingnews' team on the ground at the Tour, Daniel Ostanek, has put together a great preview for today's action. Make sure to read it below. Tour de France: Tourmalet, summit finish the next GC skirmish on stage 6 - Preview

144.9KM TO GO

Here we go, stage 6 of the Tour de France is underway! It's the second day of Pyrenean pain. Who will look to get into today's break?

Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) is the first to try straight from the gun, with Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step) straight onto his wheel. They both played a role in the break yesterday and are showing no early signs of fatigue as they get straight to work. 

There's an early rise straight from the start as we leave Tarbes and there are already gaps starting to form. Around 11 riders have already created breathing room from themselves and the peloton. 

Jumbo-Visma aren't messing about at all with Van Aert getting into this early move. He and Alaphilippe are joined by a whole host of other strong riders: - James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost) - Nikias Arndt (Bahrain-Victorious) - Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën) - Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) - Gorka Izaguirre (Movistar) - Chris Juul-Jensen (Jayco-AlUla) - Tobias Halland Johhanessen (Uno-X) - Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X)

Multiple teams have missed out and are now trying to bridge the gap before it gets too late. Alaphilippe and Van Aert are doing their best to make sure the move sticks as they are joined by a rider each from Ineos Grenadiers, UAE Emirates and Arkéa-Samsic. 

Alexis Renard (Cofidis) has had an early bike change. 

Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates), Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Matis Louvel (Arkéa-Samsic) and Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech) were the five riders who joined the original ten that got away. It will be Neilands' second day in the break in succession if this move sticks. 

There's another counter move of riders in-between the peloton and the break trying not to miss out on what seems to be the break of the day as their gap approaches the minute mark. 

130KM TO GO

Composition of the chasing group of riders: - Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar) - Anthony Perez (Cofidis) - Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) - Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-Quick Step) - Oliver Naesen (AG2R Citroën)

The break of the day has formed. Bora-hansgrohe have assumed their position at the front of the peloton as they now hold the yellow jersey and must control. The gap is already at 2:35 with the five pursuers at 34 seconds. 

Here's an early look at Van Aert, one of the instigators of today's breakaway, which is now 20 riders deep as contact has been made by the extra five riders.

ON TODAY'S TOUR DE FRANCE MENU

KM 0: Start - Tarbes KM 29.9: Climb - Côte de Capvern-les-Bains (5.6km at 4.8%) KM 49.2: Intermediate Sprint - Sarrancolin KM 68.1: Climb - Col d’Aspin (12km at 6.5%) KM 97.9: Climb - Col du Tourmalet (17.1km at 7.3%) KM 144.9: Finish - Cauterets-Cambasque (16km at 5.4%)

Powless sets off in pursuit of the two KOM points atop the Côte de Capvern-les-Bains (5.6km at 4.8%). He's moved up to 20 points now after losing the polka-dot jersey to Felix Gall (AG2R-Citroën) yesterday who still remains eight points ahead of him. 

The peloton are on a long straight road, fully strung out in single-file order. Gap to the break has now gone out to 3:08. 

100KM TO GO

Bora-hansgrohe are controlling things nicely for the moment with their flat specialists taking the front positions. Nils Politt, Marco Haller, Danny van Popped and Jordi Meeus will share the workload before Bob Jungels, Patrick Konrad and Emanuel Buchmann take over once the road begins to rise. 

Coquard takes the full haul of 20 points in the green jersey classification for the second straight day. This is his second successive day in the break and second intermediate sprint which he has won, nicely done by Le Coq. He started the day 66 points behind the jersey holder, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuinck) and has reduced that to 46. 

The leading group of 20 is close to turning onto the Col d’Aspin (12km at 6.5%), one of the very famous climbs that the Tour often tackles in the Pyrenees. 

Asgreen is working on the front, clearly in aid of Alaphilippe's chances. He's the closest on GC in the break at 7:10 from Hindley, but the break has barely been given any room to breathe the gap only at 3:21 to the break with under 90km left to race.

Jumbo-Visma have come to the front for now and overtaken the head of the peloton from Bora-hansgrohe. Are we going to see an early assault from the Dutch squad on the Col d’Aspin (12km at 6.5%)? 

Cosnefroy is getting dropped from the break which is quite surprising. Perhaps his efforts to be one of the only two riders in the break on stage 4 have left him fatigued. 

Mechanical issue for Maxim Van Gils at the back of the bunch. The young Belgian hasn't had the best luck in the opening six stages of his first Tour de France. 

The last two thirds of the Col d’Aspin (12km at 6.5%) are the hardest with a relatively easy start. Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-Quick Step) is struggling to hold on at the back of the peloton and has began to drop back with some of his sprint lead-out. They will be hoping to ride in within the time limit with the groupetto as they did yesterday. 

Cavendish is the next sprinter to drop out the back with two teammates, but he won't be panicking having battled to beat the time-cut on multiple occasions throughout his illustrious career. 

The break has just under 4km until the top of the Col d’Aspin and the peloton is still being driven on by Bora-hansgrohe with the gap at 3:38.

Here's a look at the break of the day being led by Asgreen. 

Jumbo-Visma have hit the front of both the peloton and the breakaway as Laporte has started to take control for Vingegaard and co. while Van Aert has decided it is time to up the pace in the breakaway. Coquard has dropped from the break after his successful pursuit of green jersey points. 

Van Aert is beginning to thin this group down significantly. Slightly curious tactics from Jumbo, but they are clearly cooking up something. Most of the sprinters are now falling away as the pace increases through Laporte. 

Powless shoots out of Van Aert's wheel in the final 80m of the climb and takes the full haul of points with Guerrero coming over in second. He's now gone back into the virtual lead of the king of the mountains classification with 30 points, two ahead of Gall. 

We're 1000km into this year's Tour de France. So much has already happened, but we've got lots more to come as we still have over two weeks of racing left to tackle. 

Cyclocross season has come early as Van der Poel and Van Aert lead the break in their descent off the Col d'Aspin. Next on the menu, the Col du Tourmalet. 

Vingegaard was on a different planet yesterday compared to his competitors on the Col de Marie Blanque, will he go again on today's even harder stage? The crest of the Tourmalet arrives with around 47km remaining in the day. If the break is given more leeway and Van Aert makes it over the top before the peloton, he could be the perfect satellite rider to guide Vingegaard to the final climb into Cauterets-Cambasque (16km at 5.4%). 

We're onto the lower slopes of the legendary Col du Tourmalet (17.1km at 7.3%) now as Hindley and Haller have a slightly uncoordinated drop of a bison while handing it over. Thankfully it didn't go wrong for the yellow jersey wearer. 

We're seeing images of the famous battle between Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck atop the Tourmalet in the 2010 Tour de France. It was an incredible battle won by the rider from Luxembourg and is one of the conflicts written into the tremendous history of this climb that has appeared in the Tour more than any other. Whether it's Coppi and Bartali, Merckx going solo or indeed Pinot who was victorious last time a stage of the Tour finished on the Tourmalet, this climb is a true legend. 

Alaphilippe has decided to make a surge off the front with 11.2km remaining in the climb. Shaw has got onto his wheel for now with Van Aert setting tempo in the break behind. 

Van der Poel is suffering under the pressure of Van Aert and dropping out of the break. He'll likely be back in action for Philipsen's lead-out tomorrow on a much flatter test into Bordeaux. 

Neilands is the next to crack under Van Aert's pressure, unsurprising after his two days in the break in succession. 

Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) and Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) are two surprising early exits from the peloton with over 7km left to climb on the Tourmalet. Latour was the last winner of the Souvenir Jacques Goddet, awarded to the first rider over the Tourmalet in honour of the former TDF race director from 1936-1986. 

Hindley is suddenly down to just one teammate in Buchmann with Jumbo-Visma continuing to take control through Nathan Van Hooydonck.

Here's a look at some of the beautiful terrain we've covered on stage 6 today. 

Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) is the first of the GC riders to drop under Jumbo-Visma's unrelenting tempo, the Canadian dropped out of the overall top 10 yesterday and will be leaking even more time today. 

Game over for Alaphilippe as he is the next rider to feel the wrath of Van Aert. The Belgian superstar has been on the front for what seems an age now, perhaps he has found the climbing legs of previous year's that saw him perform so strongly on Mont Ventoux and Hautacam at the Tour. 

Jumbo-Visma are blowing the race to pieces on the Tourmalet through Kelderman, gaps are forming already in the peloton. Only Pogačar and Hindley can hang onto the Jumbo trio of Kelderman, Kuss and Vingegaard. 

Hindley has dropped! Only Pogačar can live with Jumbo-Visma. 

Kelderman pulls off and it's time for Kuss to get to work. He's clearly the finest mountain domestique in the world and he's showing it again. Pogačar is still there, but Vingegaard will likely launch off the front and try to reach Van Aert. What a stage we're set up for now. 

CURRENT SITUATION

Head of the race: Van Aert group + 2:10: Kuss, Vingegaard and Pogačar + 2:51: Hindley group that also contains the remainder of GC contenders

Here we go! Kuss pulls off and Vingegaard attacks. Unlike yesterday, Pogačar is glued to the Dane's wheel for now. They are absolutely flying up the Tourmalet!

The duo are closing in incredibly quickly on the leaders, now only 1:07 from the group containing Van Aert. He will be crucial for the descent and the run into the final climb for the defending champion, Vingegaard. Hindley's time in yellow is likely over as he is now 1:43 down on Pogačar and Vingegaard. 

Vingegaard is pushing on as Van Aert closes in on the summit of the Tourmalet and parts the brilliant crowds. Guerreiro tried his hardest to deviate into Johannessen at the sprint atop the climb, but the Norwegian takes the full 20 KOM points and the 5000 Euros for the Souvenir Jacques Goddet. 

Van Aert has played this perfectly for his leader and will be easing off as he waits for the catch to be made before the first summit finish of this year's Tour. 

Van Aert and Vingegaard have now linked up and are settling in for the finale. Pogačar appears to be shaking out and stretching that wrist he broke in April. 

The four breakaway companions that Van Aert left as he waited for Vingegaard are close to being caught by our group of favourites behind with only a 10 second advantage for now. Hindley now has a 2:18 deficit on the leaders, it seems his time in yellow is only going to be one day. 

Pogačar is clearly bothered by his wrist injury and is continuing to work on it as he sits in the wheel of the Jumbo-Visma duo. The group containing Hindley are making some group and have reduced the deficit to under two minutes. The Australian will be aided by multiple other GC riders being left in the wake of Vingegaard and Pogačar. 

The catch has been made up with now eight riders at the head of the race: Van Aert, Vingegaard, Pogačar, Kwiatkowski, Powless, Shaw, Guerreiro and Johannessen. Van Aert is highlighting exactly why he needed to be over the Tourmalet before Vingegaard as this leading group shouldn't pull with the defending champion and should save their legs for the final climb. He'll do the majority of work in the final run in before his leader goes after the stage victory and yellow jersey. 

Here's a look back at Pogačar and Vingegaard on the Tourmalet, putting on a show. 

Buchmann is trying his best to work for Hindley, but the German national champion simply cannot match the power of Van Aert on the flatter terrain, even after the Belgian's full day in the break. Gap to the leaders is back out to 2:24. 

EF Education-EasyPost directeur sportif, Tom Southam is calming his duo of riders in the breakaway, Powless and Shaw, before they begin the ascent to the first summit finish of the 2023 Tour de France with the best in the world. 

The final climb into Cauterets-Cambasque is posted as 16km at 5.4% gradient, but that doesn't paint the full picture. Once they have completed the easiest slopes into Catuerets, they will turn off onto a section containing some hellish hairpins as they battle the brutal final 5km, three of which average over 10% in gradient. 

Pogačar's maximum speed for the stage has just been shown on a graphic to have been 103.5km/h. 

How long can Van Aert pull on the front for Vingegaard? He was one of the instigators of the breakaway over 130km ago just outside Tarbes, he led the group on the Col d'Aspin and the Col du Tourmalet, how much could he possibly have left?

Powless probably won't play a big role in the finish having been dropped on the Tourmalet, but his haul of 18 KOM points across the stage has confirmed a second stint in the polka-dot jersey as there are only 10 points available on the final climb and the solitary rider within 10 points of his lead is Gall, who is a long way behind in the yellow jersey group. A solid day out for the American. 

Take a look at the profile for the final climb of the day below.

For the fifth time in the history of #TDF2023, Cauterets welcomes the race, and it's going to be the GC favourites who will fight for the win today. pic.twitter.com/6AYXiqhsbG July 6, 2023

As expected, Powless is the first to start struggling at the back of the leading group. Van Aert still powers on. 

Ineos are leading the second group on the road for their GC hopefuls, Rodríguez and Pidcock. They are 2:30 down on the leaders. 

Van Aert has been named as the most aggressive rider for the second day running at the 2023 Tour de France. He won the super-combativity prize in 2022 and will line up on the start tomorrow in Mont-de-Marsan with the gold race number again.

The leading group are now in Cauterets with the hardest inclines awaiting them in the approach to the finish. 

We're hopefully about to see a battle for the ages between Vingegaard and Pogačar, who will come out on top?

Powless has been fully dropped and we're now down to seven riders at the front of the race. 

Gradients are about to get much harder as we hit the hairpins. Shaw is dropping, Guerreiro is cracking, Van Aert is putting in his final effort. 

Vingegaard takes over and here we go! Only Pogačar is with the Dane for now and Tour de France is in full flight on stage 6. 

Van Aert has to be held up by fans for a moment as he comes to an almost complete stand-still after his tremendous 140km effort. Kwiatkowski has made is back to the two leaders and is sitting in nicely for now. When can he make a tactical strike for glory, and does he have the legs for it? You're reminded why the Polish rider is a former World Champion and a fantastic domestique as he is able to follow for now. 

Pogačar is at times overlapping wheels with his rival as Kwiatkowski finally drops under the pressure. Vingegaard gets out of the saddle again and pushes on. 

Has Pogačar got enough to counter? There are hints of a gap at times but the Dane doesn't appear to have put in his biggest dig for now. The fans are incredible on this final climb. 

Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) almost comes to a halt as he appears to have finished his work on the front for Rodríguez and Pidcock in the main group behind. 

Pogačar goes! He's turned the tables on the Dane on stage 6. The Slovenian strikes back on the final climb. 

What an acceleration from the two-time Tour winner. Vingegaard hasn't cracked by any means but he has to chase his rival down now before the final. In the group behind, Rodríguez has attacked with Hindley and Kuss in his wheel. 

Pogačar only has a gap of six seconds for now, but he's clearly not feeling as bad as he did yesterday. He's pushing on as French President, Emmanuel Macron flies by him. 

The gap is finally starting to go out and is now at 13 seconds. What a response after yesterday's stage. Pogačar is flying in the final kilometre. Incredible. 

STAGE FINISH

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) wins stage 6 of the Tour de France. He was well beaten yesterday, but has struck back on the first summit finish of the race, with an incredible acceleration to drop Jonas Vingegaard (jumbo-Visma). What a finale to stage 6 and 2023 Tour de France is well and truly alive. It's the Slovenian's tenth Tour de France stage victory. 

Vingegaard crosses the line in second and will take the yellow jersey from Hindley on an incredible second Pyrenean stage. 

Hindley finishes his day in yellow 2:39 down on Pogačar in a group containing Rodríguez and Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla).

Here's a look at Pogačar as he crossed the line on an incredible bounce-back at the Tour de France and won stage 6. 

Here's what Hindley had to say after losing his yellow jersey: "What can I say, was just an epic day riding round in the yellow jersey doing some mythical climbs and to be honest I got my arse handed to me, but really enjoyed it." "I knew I just wanted to ride my own race and if I could hand onto the two big favourites then I would do my best and I did and I just got spat like at the top the climb, 4k to go or something and that was it." "It was pretty much lights out from then on. Gave it a red hot crack so that's all I can do, ay."   Here's what he had to say on Jumbo-Visma's tactics: "Jumbo rode super hard tempo the whole Tourmalet and the final few kilometres at the top they went really hard and I knew they were going to do something crazy. I just put myself in the right position and there ready to go, but like I said I was hanging on for dear life and did my best, but yeah." 

Pogačar closed the deficit to Vingegaard to just 25 seconds overall, here's what he had to say after his victory: "I would not say revenge but it's good to win today and take back some time. I feel a little bit of relief and feel much better now." "The display Jonas showed yesterday was incredible and I was thinking when they started pulling on the Tourmalet - 'shit, if it's going to happen like yesterday we can pack our bags and go home'. Luckily I had good legs today and could follow on the Tourmalet quite comfortably." "Then, when I felt it was the right moment in the end I attacked - it was a big relief.It's 10 stage victory - I'm coming for you Mark!" "I would say it's almost perfect the gap and it's going to be a big big battle until the last stage I think." He dedicated his victory to his fiancée after she crashed in the Giro Donne yesterday: "Of course Urska, today she was already at home not racing. She gave me all the power. This one was for her."

Final results from stage 6, courtesy of FirstCycling.

It was only to be one day in yellow for Hindley, but he is sitting comfortably in third overall behind Vingegaard and Pogačar at 1:34 from the Dane. He was the favourite to finish in third before the Tour and is looking good after the two Pyrenean tests with Simon Yates in fourth a further 1:40 behind him. 

All 172 riders that started stage 6 of the Tour de France have successfully finished our second and final stage in the Pyrenees. Jakobsen was the last to cross, 37:27 down on Pogačar, but well within the 42:12 time cut for today. He rode home in front of the broom wagon alongside three members of his lead-out train that will be back in action on tomorrow's flat stage to Bordeaux: Deckercq, Mørkøv and Devenyns. 

Yessssss!!!With five minutes to spare, @FabioJakobsen and the rest of the Soudal Quick-Step boys conclude this #TDF2023 stage!Photo: @BeelWout pic.twitter.com/XB8ZJAdPsY July 6, 2023

Here's new yellow jersey holder, Jonas Vingagaard (Jumbo-Visma) receiving a Presidential welcome to the podium after stage 6 from Emmanuel Macron. He holds a 25 second lead over Pogačar and the duo should have two days off from their battle with two flatter stages arriving tomorrow and on stage 8 as they prepare for the explosive duel atop the Puy de Dôme in it's first appearance at the Tour since 1998.

What's next? Tomorrow's stage will be a welcome return to flatter roads on a 169.9km route from Mont-de-Marsan to Bordeaux. The last time a stage finished in the port city was in 2010 and the winner that day was none other than Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan). The Manx Missile put in his best performance of the Giro to win the final stage after three weeks of arduous racing, will tomorrow finally be the day he breaks the Tour de France stage win record? Green jersey wearer, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) has won both of the bunch sprints so far and will be looking for that hat trick to prevent Cavendish from winning that magical 35th stage. 

That wraps things up for Cyclingnews' live coverage of Stage 6 of the Tour de France with the GC race nicely poised for a battle on the Puy de Dôme come Sunday. Before then make sure to check out Barry Ryan's full stage report linked below, alongside our growing gallery, and all of Cyclingnews' other news and content being produced on the ground at the race. Tour de France: Tadej Pogacar claws back time with victory at Cauterets-Cambasque

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Tour de France: Pogacar win stage six as Vingegaard takes yellow – as it happened

A stunning attack gave Tadej Pogacar the stage win over Jonas Vingegaard, but the Dane took the yellow jersey from Jai Hindley

• 6 Jul 2023 Jeremy Whittle's report
• 6 Jul 2023 Pogacar speaks!
• 6 Jul 2023 General classification standings
• 6 Jul 2023 Pogacar wins stage six! Vingegaard takes the yellow jersey.
• 6 Jul 2023 Pogacar attacks with 2km to go! Wow!
• 6 Jul 2023 And then there were two! Vingegaard v Pogacar
• 6 Jul 2023 Tobias Johannessen first to the top of Tourmalet!
• 6 Jul 2023 Vingegaard and Jumbo-Visma attack Pogacar and Hindley!
• 6 Jul 2023 Neilson Powless takes the points atop Col d’Aspin!
• 6 Jul 2023 Bryan Coquard wins the intermediate sprint
• 6 Jul 2023 Powless takes two KOTM points
• 6 Jul 2023 Preamble

Jeremy Whittle's report

What a day that was. If you don’t like that, you don’t like bike racing. Here’s Jeremy Whittle’s report from Cauterets-Cambasque.

Thanks for reading and for your emails. Until next time!

Let’s turn our attention to tomorrow’s stage , one of the flattest of this year’s race. It’s one for the sprinters, with the finish in Bordeaux. Don’t expect there to be any great movement in the GC standings, unless there is heavy wind that could separate the riders.

This represents a brilliant opportunity for Mark Cavendish to get that historic 35th stage win, but expect Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen to be challenging.

Interestingly the Eurosport team have just highlighted a incredibly tight corner with 3km to go in Bordeaux, just before they cross the Garonne river to the finish line. It’s an insane right-hand corner, almost a U-turn, and how the sprinters negotiate that could be key in who claims the stage win.

A brutal day for Jai Hindley , who couldn’t follow his efforts of yesterday. Hindley loses the yellow jersey after one day, and the Australian is now 1min34secs off the pace in the GC classification.

Pogacar speaks!

I would not say revenge, but it does feel sweet to take some time back today. Yeah, I was a bit worried yesterday. The display that Jonas showed yesterday was incredible. I was thinking when he was pulling on Tourmalet that it was the same again, and maybe we could pack up our bags and go home. But I hung on. Now I think the gap [to Vingegaard in the GC standings] is perfect. That’s my 10th stage victory. I’m coming for you, Mark [Cavendish]! No, no, I’m joking. He’s a long way ahead.

Pogacar dedicates his victory to his girlfriend and fellow professional cyclist, Urska Zigart, who crashed yesterday in the Giro Donne, the women’s Tour of Italy. “She’s not racing today. I got all of my power from her,” he says.

General classification standings

Still early days of course, but this suddenly feels like a two-horse race. But let’s be wary of drawing too many conclusions. Think of where we were yesterday, and how the race turned on its head today.

Joel Embiid , 2023 MVP in the NBA, approves.

“OMG I THOUGHT THE TOUR WAS ENDED YESTERDAY…. Go Pogacar”

OMG J’AI CRU QUE LE TOUR ÉTAIT FINIT HIER…. Allez Pogacar #TDF2023 — Joel “Troel” Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) July 6, 2023

Everything with Pogacar , from his performance yesterday to his body language this morning, pointed to the Slovenian being a wounded animal. Jumbo-Visma and the rest of his rivals smelled blood. I don’t think anyone, apart from maybe Pogacar himself, saw this coming.

Make it 🔟 stage wins for @TamauPogi with an average speed of 27.6km/h up Cauterets-Cambasque He is the 4th youngest rider to make it to 🔟 @LeTour victories after François Faber, Mark Cavendish and Bernard Hinault 👶 #TDFdata #TDF2023 https://t.co/PdByxfMTsZ — letourdata (@letourdata) July 6, 2023

Absolutely ridiculous . Pogacar looks like he came out of a slingshot.

💥 @TamauPogi ATTACKS! Vingegaard is not in his wheel! 💥 @TamauPogi ATTAQUE ! Vingegaard n'est pas dans sa roue ! #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/tLG4iLcCdM — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 6, 2023

The top five:

1. Tadej Pogacar 2. Jonas Vingegaard, at 23'’ 3. Tobias Halland Johannessen, at 1’22'’ 4. Ruben Guerreiro 2’06'’ 5. James Shaw, 2’15'’

Pogacar wins stage six! Vingegaard takes the yellow jersey.

The Slovenian puts 23 seconds between himself and his great rival, Vingegaard. And he’ll earn an extra 10 bonus seconds for the stage win, with Vingegaard taking a bonus six points for second.

Vingegaard will be in yellow, but Pogacar has put the frighteners up Jumbo-Visma in the GC classification. Stunning.

1km to go: This is quite the role reversal from yesterday! Seventeen seconds now between Vingegaard and Pogacar. The latter was seen as wounded, especially after the struggles yesterday. Pogacar looked like he was holding on for dear life, but it appears the two-time champion was just biding his time. Amazing.

Pogacar attacks with 2km to go! Wow!

2km to go: Pogacar suddenly takes off, like he found a burst of nitros in his rear wheel. And Vingegaard has no answer! Pogacar opens a gap of 10 seconds over his rival. This is absolutely stunning racing.

3km to go: It’s a waiting game. Pogacar on Vingegaard’s wheel.

And then there were two! Vingegaard v Pogacar

4km to go: Van Aert is finished. He’s absolutely emptied the tank and almost comes to a complete standstill, as fans try to push him up the mountain. Vingegaard attacks! Pogacar is with him, leaving the five others, including Guerreiro and Shaw, in their wake. Johannessen threatens to hold on, but he can’t. It’s down to just two men.

5km to go: Powless can’t hang on. He drops from the leading pack, which is now seven strong.

Remember, he still leads the KoM standings, which look like this after Tourmalet. 1. Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), 36 2. Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citröen), 28 3. Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar Team), 23 4. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X), 20 5. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), 19 6. Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), 18 7. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), 17 8. Daniel Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers), 15

6km to go: We’re approaching the steepest part of the climb, with some parts north of 10%. This is where Vingegaard could make his move. How will Pogacar react?

7km to go: For the second consecutive day, Van Aert has been awarded the combativity prize. Shock.

8km to go: The group containing the yellow jersey, Hindley, as well as the Yates brothers, Kuss, Bardet and others, are around 2min30secs adrift of the leaders.

9km to go: Fans swarm onto the road to push their heroes up the mountain and around the hairpin bends. Powless threatens to fall off the back of the leaders, but finds some energy and regains his position.

10km to go: This is insane from Van Aert. How does he have the legs for this?

12km to go: So who do you fancy? Vingegaard or Pogacar. They are flying up the final climb of the day, an average of 5% at 30-40km/hr. Expect Vingegaard to attack when things get a little steeper in the final kilometres.

15km to go: No change at the tête de la course. Jumbo-Visma’s Van Aert and Vingegaard lead the breakaway group, who have started the ascent to Cauterets-Cambasque.

To put Vingegaard’s climb at the Tourmalet into context, he took two minutes from David Gauda’s record:

When @JumboVismaRoad up the ante... Jonas Vingegaard shaves 2 minutes from @DavidGaudu 's @Strava KOM on the ascent of Col du Tourmalet ⛰️ #TDFdata #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/COMHPWOijY — letourdata (@letourdata) July 6, 2023

17km to go: The leaders are actually putting time into the peloton, and have stretched their lead to around 2min38secs. It doesn’t appear that the peloton will challenge at the finish line.

19km to go: Britain’s James Shaw is getting a lot of encouragement from his EF Education-EasyPost radio. “You have some of the best legs in the world. You are in this”.

22km to go: So we expect Van Aert to lead out and set the pace for the leaders, which Jumbo-Visma will hope lay the foundations for Vingegaard to pip Pogacar. After yesterday’s toil for the Slovenian, it will be very interesting what is in his legs. Pogacar will wait for the attack, and react when he can.

26km to go: Vingegaard, Pogacar and Van Aert catch the leaders. The group is now eight strong and they have a lead of two minutes over the peloton. With the descent now finished, there is a brief period of riding on the flat before the last ascent to Cauterets-Cambasque, the first altitude finish of this year’s race. It is nowhere near as severe as Tourmalet, but could still spark some separation.

⛰ One last climb, and it's the first altitude finish of the #TDF2023 : Cauterets-Cambasque coming soon! ⛰ Une dernière ascension qui nous amène à la première arrivée en altitude du #TDF2023 : Cauterets-Cambasque ! pic.twitter.com/Ni27qeRgmm — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 6, 2023

32km to go: Vingegaard and Pogacar are closing on the leaders, who are now just four after Van Aert dropped back. This is the current state of play, courtesy of the Tour De France website.

In the lead Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost), Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X) Seven seconds behind Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) At 2 minutes Jai Hindley, Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates), Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla), Carlos Rodriguez, Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich), Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citröen)

38km to go: An email from Alex Whitney.

While I think there’s an element of testing Pogacar to take advantage before he grows into better form, it seems to me that Vingegaard is a much different rider than last year and I suspect much of that comes down to confidence. He seems much more willing to approach his limits climbing, rather than playing it safe as he did much of last year’s Tour until Roglic broke Pogacar on the Col du Granon.

I would agree with that. Vingegaard is the aggressor here.

40km: Behind the leaders, Vingegaard and Pogacar follow, around 30 seconds behind. Around two minutes behind the GC contenders come the peloton, with Hindley and Yates among them. That distance means that Vingegaard is now the virtual holder of the yellow jersey. Big, big moves.

Tobias Johannessen first to the top of Tourmalet!

47km to go: Elbows at the summit! Johannessen gets a barge from Movistar’s Ruben Guerreiro, but it is the Norwegian who is the first of the five to cross the line at the Tourmalet. Five remain in the breakaway group: Johannessen, Guerreiro, Kwiatkowski, Shaw and Van Aert fly down the descent, underneath chair lifts and through the barren mountain-top terrain. They are doing 80km/hr down the hill.

47km: Meanwhile, in the breakaway, Van Aert is pushing hard to reach the summit. The leaders are losing time on Vingegaard and Pogacar, but they should reach the summit first. The crowd are going absolutely crazy, with French president Emmanual Macron also there to take in the party.

48km: Vingegaard goes again! A big right-hand hairpin and the Dane sprints up the last 2km of the Tourmalet. It’s one-on-one as Kuss drops off: Vingegaard versus Pogacar, who is just about hanging on as they zoom towards the leading back, now just a minute back from the breakaway. Vingegaard and Pogacar whistle past Alaphilippe, who is dropping back from the leaders. This is real racing.

🇩🇰 Jonas Vingegaard attacks! But this time, @TamauPogi stays in his wheel! 🇩🇰 Jonas Vingegaard attaque ! Cette fois, @TamauPogi reste dans sa roue ! #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/8G3QfVXBBl — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 6, 2023

49km: Pogacar holds on, he’s able to track Vingegaard and Jumbo-Visma teammate Sepp Kuss! But Yates and Hindley can’t hold on!

Vingegaard and Jumbo-Visma attack Pogacar and Hindley!

50km to go: Here we go! This is the attack we were waiting for. The peloton are into the last few km of the Tourmalet climb, and Vingegaard leads off the attack, with Pogacar and Hindley desperately trying to hand onto the Dane’s wheel.

51km to go: Jumbo-Visma also lead the peloton. It seems they are trying to put the boot into Pogacar, who struggled yesterday.

Meanwhile, at the head of the course four kilometres before the summit, Michael Woods (who is in GC contention) and Julian Alaphilippe gets dropped.

52km to go: Van Aert is doing an awful lot of work at the head of the breakaway group. You wonder how long he can keep this up for. We’re into the hardest part of the Tourmalet climb now, around 6km from the summit. The leading group is 10 strong, around 3min41secs ahead of the peloton.

🏁55 km 1️⃣0️⃣🚴‍♂️< 4'15" < 🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️🚗 🇫🇷 @alafpolak1 🇧🇪 @WoutvanAert 🇵🇹 @Rguerreiro94 🇳🇴 @TobiasJohannes1 🇩🇰 @jonasgregaard 🇪🇸 Gorka Izagirre 🇵🇱 @kwiato 🇫🇷 @LouvelMatis 🇺🇸 @NPowless 🇬🇧 @JamesthingyShaw #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/jp1DmKvf8i — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 6, 2023

56km to go: Mathieu van der Poel is dropped, he failed to keep pace with that little burst from Alaphilippe and Shaw. The leading group is 13 riders strong, and they hold about a 4min30sec lead over the peloton, where Vingegaard lurks. The Dane looks very comfortable, Will he make a move today, or keep his powder dry?

57km: Ah. Nope. With the gradient at 9%, Van Aert and co catch Alaphilippe and Shaw, who humbly shuffle back into the leading group.

57km to go: Alaphilippe breaks away from the leaders! Britain’s James Shaw follows but it’s still very early for there to be a genuine attack. Around 10km to the top of the Tourmalet, and that’s a lot of kilometres. But the duo have got a little gap, let’s see if they can maintain or grow it!

58km to go: A near miss for overall leader Jai Hindley! His Bora-hansgrohe collected a water bottle, tried to pass it to the yellow jersey rider but dropped it! The bottle bounced on the tarmac and thankfully slid right between the wheels of Hindlay, and surely could have unseated the Australian in the peloton. That could have been disastrous, but Hindlay just shakes his head in relief and continues up the ascent.

62km to go: And so, the 17km climb begins, at an average gradient of 7.3%, although the maximum gradient is a ridiculous 18%. Altitude is definitely a factor. They started their climb at 880m, and the summit is at 2,115m, before a 47km run to the finish line, descending the Tourmalet and then back up to Cauterets-Cambasque.

65km to go: The breakaway have stretched their lead in the descent, up to around 4min20secs. They now have started their ascent up the Tourmalet, the most visited mountain on the Tour.

Here is the virtual KOM classification after Col d’Aspin: 1. Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), 30 2. Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citröen), 28 3. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), 19 4. Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), 18 5. Daniel Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers), 15

Here’s how Powless did it at the top.

⛰ He had to sprint against @Rguerreiro94 , but @NPowless crests the Col d'Aspin first. He is back in the lead of the KOM classification. ⛰ Il a du sprinter face à @Rguerreiro94 , mais @NPowless passe le Col d'Aspin en tête. Il est de nouveau @maillotapois virtuel. #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/PIM6K2Lde6 — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 6, 2023

72km to go: The Tour has just reached the 1,000km mark across these five and half stages. The peloton has also reached the top of the Col d’Aspin, around 3min25secs back. Both breakaway and peloton make their descent before the big one: the Tourmalet.

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Tour de France 2023 stage 6 LIVE: Winner, highlights and standings after Pogacar stuns Vingegaard

Tadej Pogacar bounced back in vintage fashion to win the sixth stage of the Tour de France on Thursday, gaining a psychological edge over Jonas Vingegaard even though the defending champion took the overall leader’s yellow jersey.

The Slovenian, who lost ground to Vingegaard in Wednesday’s first mountain stage, resisted his rival’s attack in the Col du Tourmalet before going solo on the final climb to Cauterets-Cambasque and beating the Jumbo Visma rider by 24 seconds.

After Australian Jai Hindley, who claimed the yellow jersey on Wednesday, was dropped before the top of the Tourmalet, Vingegaard and Pogacar were set to fight for the stage win on the last ascent, a 16-km effort at 5.4%.

Pogacar attacked with 2.7km left, taking Vingegaard by surprise after the Dane’s team had done everything to set him up for the win all day.

Overall, Vingegaard leads Pogacar by 25 seconds and third-placed Hindley by one minute and 34 seconds.

Follow all the latest updates from stage six below:

Tour de France 2023 - Stage Six

Highlights – final kilometre of stage six, tadej pogacar wins stage six.

3km to go: Pogacar attacks Vingegaard close to summit finish

95km to go: Bryan Coquard takes 20 points in the sprint ahead of Wout van Aert

115km to go: Neilson Powless claims two KOM points atop Cote de Capvern-les-Bains

16:46 , Lawrence Ostlere

A look back at that final kilometre:

Tadej Pogacar wins stage six

16:39 , Lawrence Ostlere

You can take a look at the full standings in every category in the race tracker above.

16:37 , Lawrence Ostlere

The two superstars of this Tour de France salute one another:

Respect 🤜🤛 @TamauPogi and Jonas Vingegaard. #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/MaT9ORhFiM — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 6, 2023

Jonas Vingegaard takes the yellow jersey

16:34 , Lawrence Ostlere

That was great fun. Vingegaard now leads the Tour de France by 25 seconds from Pogacar. Jai Hindley is third at +1min 34sec, and no one else is within three minutes.

Stage six – top five finishers

16:29 , Lawrence Ostlere

1. Tadej Pogacar2. Jonas Vingegaard, at 23’’3. Tobias Halland Johannessen, à 1’22’’4. Ruben Guerreiro 2’06’’5. James Shaw, 2’15’’

16:28 , Lawrence Ostlere

Take a look at that ruthless attack:

💥 @TamauPogi ATTACKS! Vingegaard is not in his wheel! 💥 @TamauPogi ATTAQUE ! Vingegaard n'est pas dans sa roue ! #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/tLG4iLcCdM — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 6, 2023

🏆 🇸🇮 @TamauPogi , ladies and gentleman! 🏆 Mesdames et Messieurs : 🇸🇮 @TamauPogi ! #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/CfD0qc4Kaz — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 6, 2023

16:26 , Lawrence Ostlere

Jai Hindley comes in two and a half minutes down on the leaders – he will give up the yellow jersey to Jonas Vingegaard. Pogacar will be second in the general classification, about half a minute down on the Danish reigning champion. What a Tour we have in store now.

16:23 , Lawrence Ostlere

What an assault by Pogacar! He wins stage six with that unmatchable solo attack to the summit at Cauterets. Vingegaard comes home 23 or 24 seconds down, as well as some time bonus too.

Tour de France stage six – Pogacar closes in on finish line

16:22 , Lawrence Ostlere

400m to go: The road flattens out and this will suit Pogacar nicely – he is going to sprint to the line...

Tour de France stage six – Pogacar passes flamme rouge in front

16:21 , Lawrence Ostlere

1km to go: Pogacar passes the flamme rouge with a 15 second lead over Vingegaard now...

Tour de France stage six – Pogacar pushes on towards stage win

16:20 , Lawrence Ostlere

1.5km to go: Vingegaard has done brilliantly to keep in touch – the gap is down to only seven seconds – but Pogacar is surely going to win the stage...

Tour de France stage six – Pogacar leaves Vingegaard behind

16:19 , Lawrence Ostlere

2km to go: Wow, what an attack by Pogacar. He looked cooked yesterday; now he looks unbeatable. He leaves Vingegaard about 10 seconds back down the mountain – can he increase the gap before the finish?

Tour de France stage six – Pogacar attacks!

16:17 , Lawrence Ostlere

3km to go: Pogacar remains locked on Vingegaard’s wheel. This is calm, sensible stuff from the Slovenian two-time champion, who usually takes the showman option... but now Pogacar attacks!

Tour de France stage six

16:15 , Lawrence Ostlere

3.5km to go: Vingegaard continues to keep a steady pace, and he glances back to see if Pogacar wants to attack and take the lead – Pogacar declines. That is not in his nature, to be defensive, but tactically it is the right move. He can save his legs for the top and beat Vingegaard to the win and the bonus seconds. Kwiatkowski falls back, unable to keep up.

Tour de France stage six – Vingegaard attacks!

16:12 , Lawrence Ostlere

4km to go: Van Aert pulls aside and Vingegaard accelarates! Pogacar is the only one of the lead group who can keep with him, and Vingegaard sees that and slows down. Kwiatkowski takes the opportunity to bridge back to the front two, and it’s now a three.

16:10 , Lawrence Ostlere

5km to go: The yellow jersey group of Jai Hindley and a bunch of other riders are about two and a half minutes behind the leaders, who remain locked on Van Aert’s wheel.

Tour de France stage six – Van Aert awarded combativity prize

16:05 , Lawrence Ostlere

7.5km to go: In news that won’t shock anybody, Wout van Aert has won the day’s combativity prize for the most aggressive rider.

Tour de France stage six - Powless loses contact

16:03 , Lawrence Ostlere

8.5km to go: Van Aert looks so strong. What a phenomenal performance by the Belgian, once again, who has been attacking on the front all day, having also challenged for sprints and hilly stages earlier this week. The definition of an elite all-rounder.

His pace is forcing Neilson Powless to lose contact with the leaders. So the front eight becomes seven:

Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X), Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar), James Shaw (EF Education), Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos), Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates).

15:59 , Lawrence Ostlere

10km to go: So what is going to unfold at the front? At some point soon Wout van Aert is going to step aside and let Vingegaard attack, you would think. Pogacar will try to follow – he failed to do so yesterday, but he looks strong and composed right now.

Can any of the rest of this group challenge the big two for the stage win? Michael Kwiatkowski has lots of experience in these scenarios and Ruben Guerreiro is a strong climber. But the realistic answer is, no.

15:55 , Lawrence Ostlere

12km to go: The road isn’t too steep right now but legs must be starting to burn after such a brutal day at the end of a tough opening week to this Tour de France. The second group are about three minutes behind the lead pack, and the yellow jersey of Jai Hindley is in there. He will still have big ambitions for the podium, despite losing yellow today, and that is the battle in that second group now.

Emannuel Buchmann, Simon and Adam Yates and David Gaudu are all in that second group and have designs on a high GC placing.

Tour de France stage six – front group begin final cimb

15:49 , Lawrence Ostlere

16km to go: Wout van Aert leads the front eight on to the final climb. It doesn’t start too sharp but it tips up over 10% gradient near the top, where you would think we will see a Pogacar-Vingegaard showdown.

Tour de France stage six – lead groups merge

15:39 , Lawrence Ostlere

23km to go: So there are now eight riders at the front...

Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X), Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar), James Shaw (EF Education), Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos), Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) and Neilson Powless (EF Education).

Van Aert is the man on the front, pulling them along.

Tour de France stage six - group two closing in on leaders

15:37 , Lawrence Ostlere

25km to go: The chasers – Van Aert, Vingegaard, Pogacar and Powless – are closing in on the front quartet (Johannessen, Guerreiro, Shaw, Kwiatkowski) as they all near the foot of the final climb to the summit finish at Cauterets. The gap between the groups is down to about 20 seconds and it seems they will soon be climbing all together.

The winner of this stage is almost certainly among these eight riders.

15:29 , Lawrence Ostlere

35km to go : As it stands, Vingegaard will take the yellow jersey from the shoulders of Jai Hindley, who was left behind on the Tourmalet when Jumbo-Visma upped the pace.

Tour de France stage six - two groups of four lead the way

15:25 , Lawrence Ostlere

38km to go: So, a quick summary.

Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X), Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar), James Shaw (EF Education) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos) are flying down the descent from the Tourmalet towards the foot of the final climb to the summit finish.

About 30 seconds behind them is the group containing Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) and Neilson Powless (EF Education).

15:17 , Mike Jones

47 km to go: Wout van Aert leads until the final 100m of the climb before Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X) takes the maximum 20 points in the king of the mountains classification. He went through a bit of jostling with Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar) but pipped him at the line.

Vingegaard and Pogacar crest the mountain just 43 seconds behind them.

15:12 , Mike Jones

48km to go: Sepp Kuss has done his job for Jumbo-Visma teammate Jonas Vingegaard and drops away leaving a two horse battle between the reigning champion and Tadej Pogacar.

Up ahead the breakaway group are entering the final kilometre of the Col du Tourmalet.

15:08 , Mike Jones

49km to go: Jai Hindley can’t keep up with Jumbo-Visma and Pogacar so drops back to the peloton. Wout van Aert is working hard for his teammates in the breakaway.

Jonas Vingegaard is going to be the favourite to win this stage right now.

Under two kilometres to go for the leaders until they crest the Tourmalet.

15:05 , Mike Jones

50km to go: Oh wow. Jumbo-Visma and Jonas Vingegaard make their move to attack over the top of the Tourmalet. Tadej Pogacar and Jai Hindley stick with them with around five km for this group to go before the summit.

15:01 , Mike Jones

51km to go : Four kilometres to until the summit of Col du Tourmalet. The breakaway has lost a few members and is now down to just 10 riders which includes Wout van Aert, Julian Alaphilippe and Neilson Powless.

Powless and Alaphilippe will be competing for the KOM points.

14:57 , Mike Jones

14:53 , Mike Jones

53 km to go: The breakaway is hitting the more difficult parts of the climb now and the peloton has reduced the time gap to under four minutes.

Wout van Aert is controlling the pace and tempo of the leaders once again.

14:42 , Mike Jones

56.5km to go: Jai Hindley has a near miss as one of his Bora-Hansgrohe helpers tried to pass him a water bottle and dropped it. It bounced in between the wheels of the yellow jersey holder who breathes a sigh of relief and carries on up the mountain.

Shaw and Alaphilippe are drawn back into the breakaway pack as they didn’t try to work together to stay out front.

14:37 , Mike Jones

58 km to go: Now then! Julian Alaphilippe kicks on and tries to some pace into the climb from the front of the peloton. James Shaw is up their with him but there’s a long, long way to go to the summit.

11km in fact.

14:36 , Mike Jones

59 km to go: Here is the virtual KOM classification after Col d’Aspin:

1. Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), 30

2. Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citröen), 28

3. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), 19

4. Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), 18

5. Daniel Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers), 15

That could all change by the time they get to the top of the Tourmalet though.

14:29 , Mike Jones

62 km to go: The breakaway has gone through a few kilometres in the long, arduous climb up the Col du Tourmalet. This trek is both gruelling and thrilling.

Wout van Aert, ever the competitor, is at the front. No surprises there.

14:25 , Mike Jones

65 km to go: The main attraction of this stage is the Col du Tourmalet. It’s a 17.1km climb up the iconic mountain which has an average gradient of 7.3%.

The gap between the breakaway leaders and the peloton is now up to four minutes 25 seconds. We’ll see how this climb goes to determine where this stage winner will come from.

14:22 , Mike Jones

67 km to go: American Neilson Powless moves back to the top of the King of the Mountains standings, taking the virtual polka dot jersey from Felix Gall. He said before the day that the KOM point were his target for stage six.

“I felt pretty good yesterday. I was just riding the wrong wave and missed the move.

“Today, I want to at least stay in the game a little bit. It depends. Felix Gall is a super strong climber, so it’ll be hard to take it off his shoulders. Today’s a really good opportunity for points but also a stage win.”

14:18 , Mike Jones

71 km to go: The breakaway flies down the descent as the peloton crests the top of Col d’Aspin. They’ve held the time gap at around 3’20” over the course of the category 1 mountain and seen well placed to catch up on the Tourmalet.

Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert take to the front on the downhill.

14:14 , Mike Jones

76.8 km to go: Here we go then. Inside the final 500m for the climb up Col d’Aspin. Wout van Aert still has the lead across the 6% gradient.

Neilson Powless is on his wheel and bursts into the lead with 100m to go. He crosses the line and takes the maximum points in the KOM battle.

It’s been a good day for him and he’s back in the lead for the polka dot jersey.

14:07 , Mike Jones

79km to go: Jumbo-Visma are making a move. As they take to the front of the peloton, Wout van Aert, their man in the breakaway, blitzes to the head of the whole field too.

Van Aert steps on the pedal and takes charge with 2.2km to go until the top of the Col d’Aspin.

14:03 , Mike Jones

80km to go: Bora-Hansgrohe continue to control the peloton from the front and are holding the time gap to the breakaway at around 3’23”.

The peloton is stuck into the climb up Col d’Aspin now with the leading group having a touch over 3km left to the summit.

13:59 , Mike Jones

81.5 km to go: Benoît Cosnefroy can’t keep up with the pace of the breakaway as the group flies up the hill. Further back Fabio Jakobsen is dropped by the peloton and escorted by a few team-mates.

The European champion heavily crashed during the sprint on stage 4 and needs some help to get back into the main pack.

13:55 , Mike Jones

82 km to go: The second half of the Col d’Aspin reaches gradients of around 9% which is gruelling on the legs. Even more so with the knowledge that the harder, longer and steeper Col du Tourmalet is still to come.

13:50 , Mike Jones

85km to go: The kilometres are no longer flying by as the Col d’Aspin takes its toll on the leaders. They’re through four kilometres already.

It’s the 76th time for the peloton of the Tour de France to climb to Col d’Aspin.

Octave Lapize was first to crest in first position in 1910 and the lhe last person was Thibaut Pinot last year. The Frenchman is in the peloton right now but the second last “winner” of Col d’Aspin (in 2018) was his compatriot Julian Alaphilippe, who’s part of the breakaway.

13:48 , Mike Jones

13:44 , Mike Jones

87km to go: The Col d’Aspin is a category 1 mountain with a 12km climb at an average gradient of 6.5%. The final six-four kilometres are by far the worst part of this one for the riders.

The front of the breakaway hits the base of the climb with a lead of three minutes 22 seconds over the peloton. If the stage winner is to come from the breakaway today they need to increase that time gap by the end of this mountain.

13:41 , Mike Jones

89 km to go: Here’s the tntermediate sprint result in full:

1. Bryan Coquard, 20 pts

2. Wout van Aert, 17 pts

3. Mathieu van der Poel, 15 pts

4. Jonas Gregaard, 13 pts

5. Anthony Perez, 11 pts

6. Oliver Naesen, 10 pts

7. Matteo Trentin, 9 pts

8. Neilson Powless, 8 pts

9. Nikias Arndt, 7 pts

10. Michal Kwiatkowski, 6 pts

11. Matîs Louvel, 5 pts

12. James Shaw, 4 pts

13. Gorka Izagirre, 3 pts

14. Chris Juul Jensen, 2 pts

15. Krists Neilands, 1 pt

13:37 , Mike Jones

92km to go: Bryan Coquard takes the maximum 20 points in the sprint classification (green jersey) for Cofidis. With two big mountains to come in the stage that’s his work for the day done and dusted.

He won’t be in contention to win the stage so don’t be surprised if he drops back to the peloton at some stage.

13:33 , Mike Jones

96km to go: Those in the breakaway are positioning themselves ahead of the intermediate sprint. Wou van Aert is never the front but has previously said he isn’t interested in the green jersey.

Bryan Coquard is let through by Van Aert who takes to his back wheel and follows him over the line. Coquard takes the points for the sprint.

13:28 , Mike Jones

100km to go: Bora-Hansgrohe have upped the tempo at the front of the peloton and are holding the gap between them and the breakaway at three minutes.

That will be cut sharply once the leading riders reach the next mountain climb.

⏱️The gap between the breakaway and the peloton is just over 3 minutes, with 106 km remaining. ⏱️L'écart entre l'échappée et le peloton est d'un peu plus de 3 minutes, à 106 km de l'arrivée. #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/SCuAMbr7QT — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 6, 2023

13:24 , Mike Jones

104km to go: A radio message from team TotalEnergies is very revealing. They are not happy. None of their riders went with the breakaway and the team officials are not impressed.

13:17 , Mike Jones

106km to go: The time gap between the breakaway and the pelation atop Cote de Capvern-les-Bains is three minutes 15 seconds. Which is a decent lead but nothing too worrisome for the GC riders in the main pack.

The next challege is the intermediate sprint at Sarrancolin.

13:13 , Mike Jones

111km to go: Today is the second time team Bora-Hansgrohe have the yellow jersey.

In 2018, Peter Sagan took it after winning stage 2 in La Roche-sur-Yon and wore it during the team time trial in Cholet. It was also the tenth Tour de France stage win for Bora-Hansgrohe yesterday.

The German team is taking part in the Tour de France for the tenth consecutive time.

Now they have all kind of individual stage victories: in bunch sprints, flat and uphill, with Peter Sagan (5), ITT with Maciej Bodnar in Marseille in 2017, from breakaways in medium difficulty stages with Lennard Kämna, Nils Politt and Patrick Konrad, and a mountain stage with Jai Hindley.

13:08 , Mike Jones

115 km to go: There’s 250 metres left until the top of the Cote de Capvern-les-Bains, Neilson Powless takes the the front as they reach the peak and he claims a couple of points in the King of the Mountains battle.

Kasper Asgreen takes one point.

13:00 , Mike Jones

118 km to go: The Cote de Capvern-les-Bains is the first of today’s climbs. It’s a 5.6km uphill category 3 with a gradient of 4.8%. Not the most difficult of the mountains today and one that the breakaway should handle without too much trouble.

12:58 , Mike Jones

120km to go: Five riders, Neilson Powless (EF-Education EasyPost), Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-Quick Step), Oliver Naesen (AG2R-Citröen), Anthony Perez (Cofidis) and Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar) have closed the gapt to the breakaway which now sits at 20 riders.

Meanwhile in the peloton Bora-Hansgrohe are at the front setting the pace. Yellow jersey holder Jai Hindley rides for this team.

12:50 , Mike Jones

125km to go: Most of the general classification riders, including Jonas Vingegaard, haven’t left the pelaton but they’ll still be favourites for the stage win.

The first of the climbs today arrives in 10km.

12:47 , Mike Jones

12:44 , Mike Jones

130km to go: The breakaway is now over two minutes ahead of the pelaton with a second group of chasers just 47 seconds behind the leaders.

Here’s the list of riders out front: Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates), Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step), Nikias Arndt (Bahrain Victorious), Benoît Cosnefroy (Ag2r-Citröen), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), Gorka Izagirre (Movistar), Krists Neilands (Israel-PremierTech), Chris Juul-Jensen (Jayco-AlUla), Matîs Louvel (Arkéa-Samsic), Tobias Halland Johannessen and Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X).

12:38 , Mike Jones

135km to go: UAE Team Emirates have managed to grab a place in that leading group with Matteo Trentin joining them when the gap was cut to eight seconds.

Also up there are among them are Mathieu van de Poel and Christopher Juul-Jensen.

12:36 , Mike Jones

Have a watch of Wout van Aert’s blazing start. He was the main leader in getting the breakaway clear at the depart reel:

💥 The stage is underway, and 🇧🇪 @WoutvanAert and 🇫🇷 @alafpolak1 are on the attack! 💥 L'étape est lancée, 🇧🇪 @WoutvanAert et 🇫🇷 @alafpolak1 se ruent à l'attaque ! #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/mqVOOI9cwQ — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 6, 2023

12:35 , Mike Jones

137km to go: The pace of the pelaton starts to increase and the gap between them and the breakaway cuts to eight seconds.

Alaphilippe moves to the front of the field and puts the pedal down in an effort to get the breakaway even clearer. His efforts pay off as they hit a slight decline and the gap starts opening up once again.

12:31 , Mike Jones

141 km to go: There are quite a few riders in the breakaway with Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step) among them. I can count nine of them in the leading pack with a line of three to four stragglers behind them.

The pelaton is already 14 seconds behind and that gap is increasing.

Depart reel

12:28 , Mike Jones

And they’re off!

Wout van Aert flies straight to the front of the field and leads a breakaway of about 10 or so riders. The Jumbo-Visma is an explosive rider and he’ll be close to the front for most of this early part of the day.

12:26 , Mike Jones

The crowds were out in Tarbes to watch the pelaton depart the city for the start of stage six. This will be an exciting day’s riding with more than a few tactics in play as they cross the mountains.

Tadej Pogacar on his Tour so far

12:22 , Mike Jones

The two-time Tour de France winner, Tadej Pogacar spoke to Eurosport about how his 2023 Tour has been developing so far. Asked where things have gone awry so far, he replied:

“Maybe small details – a little bit of everything. The shape is here but I think the next days I can be even better.

“Jonas [Vingegaard] was super strong yesterday. I think he would have made a gap anyway. We’ll see the next days if I can respond. I’m good.”

Jai Hindley leads the Tour

12:19 , Mike Jones

Jai Hindley is a Tour de France debutant and will wear the yellow jersey for the first time after his solo win at Laruns yesterday. He has an advantage of 47 seconds over defending champion Jonas Vingeagaard and 1’03’’ over Giulio Ciccone.

Former race leader Adam Yates is 1’34’’ down in fifth with double overall winner Tadej Pogacar 1’40’’ behind in sixth place.

12:14 , Mike Jones

The riders have set off towards the depart reel with an easy and casual ride through Tarbes. They’re 7km away from where the route officially begins and should take about 10 minutes or so to get there.

12:12 , Mike Jones

Tarbes hosts a start for the 13th time.

The last time was for stage 14 of 2019 tour. At the finish atop the Tourmalet, Thibaut Pinot won from Julian Alaphilippe and Steven Kruijswijk.

That was also the last win to date at the Tour for Pinot.

Weather outlook

12:09 , Mike Jones

At around 25 degrees celsius, it’s hot in Tarbes where the pelaton sets off for the day’s ride. Things should get cooler as the progress through the 145km route and there is a chance of rain later in the afternoon.

A risk of thunderstorms is a real possibility by the time they reach the Tourmalet.

General classification after stage five

12:06 , Mike Jones

1. Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) 22hrs 15mins 12secs

2. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) +47secs

3. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +1min 03secs

4. Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) +1min 11secs

5. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) +1min 34secs

6. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) +1min 40secs

7. Simon Yates (Team Jayco-Alula) + 1min 40secs

8. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +1min 56secs

9. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Ineos Grenadiers) +1min 56secs

10. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +1 min 56secs

How Mark Cavendish became a Tour de France legend – according to his fierce rivals and loyal teammates

12:03 , Mike Jones

Mark Cavendish once gave me the look .

It was an interview in a hotel lobby in Yorkshire; he was slightly late and apologised profusely, then answered questions about the Tour de France with enthusiasm and detail.

For some reason, I thought 10 minutes of flowing conversation made me his trusted confidant, so I looked him in the eyes and asked: how much do you want to break Eddy Merckx’s Tour stage record? He shrugged it off. But what would it mean to you? He went quiet. Wouldn’t it crown your legacy?

The look was somewhere in the venn diagram of anger and disdain, and I half expected him to walk off. He stayed, but in that brief moment I felt the gentlest prod of his famous spikiness. Cavendish was once asked what he’d learned from a difficult day on the bike. “That journalists sometimes ask some stupid f***ing questions,” he replied.

How Mark Cavendish became a Tour de France legend – according to rivals and teammates

Cavendish ready for stage six

11:56 , Mike Jones

Mark Cavendish is looking forward to today’s stage but knows this isn’t one for him to excel. Cavendish is famously a sprinter and positions himself near the front when a stage sets up for a tight, racing finish.

Today’s route is the opposite. It’s all about mountains, climbing and timing your moves perfectly. Not ideal for the sprinters in the pelaton.

🌞 Love @MarkCavendish optimism. How can you not love him ? 🌞Comment ne pas aimer @MarkCavendish #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/l75tk0mk1G — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 6, 2023

Jai Hindley wins Tour de France stage five to take yellow jersey

11:49 , Mike Jones

Jai Hindley won stage five of the Tour de France in Laruns to take the yellow jersey from Adam Yates and Jonas Vingegaard rode clear of rival Tadej Pogacar as an early trip to the Pyrenees ripped up the general classification.

Hindley, winner of last year’s Giro d’Italia, marked himself out as a major contender with a breakaway victory but surely more important was the sight of defending champion Vingegaard leaving behind two-time winner Pogacar on the final climb to make his case as the favourite to be in yellow come Paris.

Having gone clear from the last of his fellow escapees on the final climb of the Col de Marie Blanque, Hindley soloed into Laruns to take the win by 32 seconds, with Vingegaard coming home at the back of a four-strong group that was second on the road.

Stage 6 map and profile

11:44 , Mike Jones

A breakdown of today’s 145km route:

First comes a small category three climb before an intermediate sprint, which may well be contested by the riders interested in the green jersey - Jasper Philipsen is in a strong position in the points classification after winning back-to-back sprints.

Then comes the Col d’Aspin (12% at 6.5%) which so often precedes the Tourmalet (17.1km at 7.3%), the Tour’s most visited climb which will take the peloton over 2,000m high.

A long, fast descent follows before the climb to Cauterets (16km at 5.4%), a long drag that will be draining on the legs after such a tough first week.

Stage six start time and prediction

11:40 , Mike Jones

The stage is set to begin at around 12.20pm BST and is expected to finish at around 4.20pm.

Prediction: Jonas Vingegaard should put down the hammer on the climb to Cauterets and take the stage win.

Jersey standings ahead of stage six

11:37 , Mike Jones

There has been plenty of changes in the jersey standings following the conclusion of stage five with both the yellow and polka-dot jersey changing hands.

Here’s who will wear the jersey this afternoon:

Yellow: Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe)

White: Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)

Green: Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)

Polka Dot: Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citroën)

Tour de France 2023 stage 6 preview: Route map and profile of 145km from Tarbes to Cauterets via the Tourmalet

11:32 , Mike Jones

The 2023 Tour de France ignited on Tuesday’s stage five as Australia’s Jai Hindley stormed into the yellow jersey and reigning champion Jonas Vingegaard dominated his main rival Tadej Pogacar . Hindley escaped in the breakaway and both Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma and Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates took too long to close the gap, allowing the Bora-Hansgrohe rider to push on alone and claim a brilliant solo win.

With it, Hindley jumped to the top of the general classification and took the yellow jersey from Adam Yates, who caught up to the struggling two-time champion and UAE team leader Pogacar, and they finished together more than a minute and a half behind Hindley and a minute down on the ominously strong Vingegaard.

Stage six goes deeper into the high Pyrenees, and the peloton will climb the iconic Col du Tourmalet en route to the first summit finish of the Tour in Cauterets.

Tour de France stage 6 preview: Iconic Tourmalet sets up yellow jersey fight

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Sprint | Sarrancolin (49.2 km)

Points at finish, kom sprint (3) côte de capvern-les-bains (29.9 km), kom sprint (1) col d'aspin (68.1 km), kom sprint (hc) col du tourmalet (97.9 km), kom sprint (1) cauterets-cambrasque (144.9 km), youth day classification, team day classification, race information.

• Date: 06 July 2023
• Start time: 13:25
• Avg. speed winner: 37.083 km/h
• Race category: ME - Men Elite
• Distance: 144.9 km
• Points scale: GT.A.Stage
• UCI scale: UCI.WR.GT.A.Stage
• Parcours type:
• ProfileScore: 310
• Vert. meters: 3894
• Departure: Tarbes
• Arrival: Cauterets-Cambasque
• Race ranking: 1
• Startlist quality score: 1584
• Won how: 2.7 km solo
• Avg. temperature: 21 °C

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• Cauterets-Cambrasque

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Tour de France 2023 Stage 6: How to watch, TV and live stream details, start time, route map and profile

Published 05/07/2023 at 21:32 GMT

The first day in the Pyrenees did not disappoint as Jai Hindley set the Tour de France ablaze with a stunning solo victory to grab yellow, while Jonas Vingegaard exposed Tadej Pogacar was a devastating attack to assert his dominance in the GC battle. Another day in the Pyrenees follows on Thursday, with Stage 6 set to be another must-see event. So when does it start? And how can you watch?

Stage 5 highlights: Hindley flies into yellow as Vingegaard bludgeons Pogacar

Pogacar and Vollering star in top 10 riders of 2023 - but who gets top spot?

01/01/2024 at 11:01

How can I watch the 2023 Tour de France on TV and live stream?

Tour de france 2023 tv and live stream schedule, plus route details, stage 6 profile video.

Stage 6 profile and route map: Tarbes - Cauterets-Cambasque

Tour de France 2023 route map

Who's riding at the Tour de France?

Roglic: tour de france not an obsession, but my responsibility to go for it.

18/10/2023 at 12:09

discovery+ and Eurosport break streaming records for Tour de France coverage

27/07/2023 at 14:07

Vingegaard has 'little way to go' before Merckx comparisons – McEwen

25/07/2023 at 16:44

Tour de France stage 6 as it happened: Jonas Vingegaard yellow jersey as Tadej Pogačar wins

The second mountain stage of the Tour de France is a chance to challenge Jonas Vingegaard and yellow jersey Jai Hindley

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After the fireworks of yesterday the race looks very different from the day before.

Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) is now in the yellow jersey and has a quite commanding lead, while Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates) lost a minute to his presumed big rival Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma).

It's anyone's guess what will happen on today's stage which features three mountains including the fearsome Col du Tourmalet .

I, Vern Pitt , will bring you all the action as it happens today. Send me any comments on Twitter , or email [email protected]

Stage start: 12:10 BST

Estimated finish: 16:20 BST

Today's parcours

It's another mountain test for the GC men today with Col du Tourmalet tackled from the harder side plus a cat one mountain top finish at Cauterets-Cambasque.

Today's timings

Start: 12:10

Summit of the Col d'Aspin: 14:15

Summit Col du Tourmalet: 15:04

Finish: 16:20

All times are British Summer Time and, obviously, estimates.

Recapping a classic mountain raid

Yesterday's stage was truly one for the ages with Jai Hindley soaring into yellow thanks to a good old mountain raid whereby he got in the break and kicked on from there on the final climb to put himself 47 seconds to the good.

At the finish he said "it was an accident" . However, its noteworthy that he recced these stages months ago. It was no accident that he knew what he was doing, made the right moves at the right times and maximised what he could get from the day.

The other winner was J onas Vingegaard, who put Tadej Pogačar to the test and found him wanting to the tune of 1-04 in fact.

Can the Slovenian hit back today? Can Bora-Hansgrohe do an effective job of defending the jersey? Will Vingegaard show them all who's boss? 

Welcome to the second day in the Pyrenees.

Who is Jonas Vingegaard?

Several months ago my colleague Tom Thewlis embarked on a mission to profile the reigning Tour de France champ.

The result is a highly insightful feature with sotires you won't have read anywhere else . It ran in our Tour de France preview magazine but we've put it online this monring.

I encourage you all to go and read it .

How tough is the Col du Tourmalet?

Pretty tough with the steepest ramps towards the top.

This is its 85th appearance in the Tour. 

The first over the summit will be given the  Souvenir Jacques Goddet, a cash prize of €5,000, given in honour of the long-standing Tour organiser who died in 2000.  

What is today's finish like?

Word in the peloton is that its harder than it looks on paper. In theory this is lesser beast than the Tourmalet, indeed the race organsier has only given it a first category rating, but I've been told its deceptive and there could well be time gaps on this climb.

Much like the Tourmalet the steepest sections are towards the top and tired legs could pay a price there.

Australia celebrates Jai Hindley's yellow jersey coup

Although, unsurprisingly, cricket dominates the coverage, the Australian press have begun to get excited about the potential for a second yellow jersey winner in Jai Hindley.

Marine Vinall, writes in her profile of the rising star in The Age : "after  Hindley stood on the Tour’s podium for the first time after his stage five victory  and claimed the yellow jersey with a 46-second lead over Vingegaard, he has announced himself as a serious contender."

News.co.au reports that Hindley has "thrust himself into contention" to win the yellow jersey after his "epic win" yesterday.

While Sophie Smith (full disclosure: who is formerly of this parish and is currently travelling with Cycling Weekly on the race) reports for ABC : "Pundits at the Tour remain focused on defending champion Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), and Yates' teammate Tadej Pogačar, the two-time winner and Slovenian prodigy who lost time on stage five, as the two big yellow jersey favourites.

"But Hindley believes that the general classification is "wide open" and it's very clear he's arrived thoroughly prepared.

"'Stage six, I think this final climb is really tough, actually a lot tougher than what it says on paper, so I think there we can expect some gaps," he said of Thursday's summit finish."

Who is the peloton's best footballer?

The Dutch funsters at Tour de Tietema took a football to the start the other day to find out.

Col du Marie-Blanque Strava stats

The Strava KOM for the final climb of yesterday's stage, held by Richie Porte, got obliterated yesterday. 

Worth noting that Jonas Vingegaard has not been uploading his rides from the Tour de France and neither has Jai Hindley.

5km to start: The stage is underway currently rolling through the neutral zone.

4km to start: Alexander Kristoff has to change a wheel. No real issues with the race at this pace.

144km to go: We're off and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) attacks straight away! 

He's got a small group with him, including Julian Alaphilippe. Will Bora-Hansgrohe be happy with him going up the road?

Jersey wearers recap

Yellow - Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe)

White - Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) 

Green - Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)

Polka-dot - Felix Gall (AG2R Citroen)

142km to go: The van Aert group has quite a big gap. Alaphilippe driving the pace there's c.10-15 of them with others coming across.

James Shaw seems to be there.

139km to go: The only have a gap of eight seconds and Alaphilippe tries to push the group on.

138km to go: Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is among the escapees as is Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers).

133km to go: The peloton seems to have locked the front down so these are the break of 15 riders.

Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Matteo Trentin (UAE Emirates), Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal - Qucik-Step), Nikias Arndt (Bahrain Victorious), Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroen), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Decuninck), Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), Gorka Izagirre (Movistar), Kristis Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech), Christophe Juul-Jenson (Jayco-AlUla), Matis Louvel (Arkea Samsic), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X), Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X)

They have a gap of 55 seconds now, but there are five further riders coming across.

132km to go: The five trying to bridge are 35 seconds behind.

131km to go: It is in fact six riders coming across and they includ Neilson Powless , who had the polka-dot jersey until yesterday. He's on a mission to get it back I suspect.

126km to go: The chasers aren't making much progress as the break powers on. The gap from the from to the peloton is now 2-30 but the chasers are still 35 second behind the break.

124km to go: They're making progress now just 12 seconds to go.

124km to go: And they've made it the break is now 20 riders strong. Bora-Hansgrohe are doing the work in the front of the peloton.

119km to go: Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) is pictured off the back of the peloton while Mathieu van der Poel dros back from the break to speak to his DS in the team car behind.

The race is on the third category climb that comes before the intermediate sprint.

The break's lead is a little under 3 minutes.

117km to go: We're hearing the descent off the Tourmalet may be a bit wet. It'll be a while before we get there.

116km to go: Kasper Asgreen (Soudal - Qucik-Step) is driving the break on. 

There's a lot of chat around the race that UAE with their, shall we say, enthusiastic approach to the race have paid the price yesterday with Pogačar losing time. 

Now maybe they have made tactical errors there but it's made for much more entertaining racing so I for one would rather they continue with their devil-may-care approach to the Toru de France. Rather that than be boring.

What do you think? Let me know on Twitter or [email protected]

Further to my last update here's Adam Yates's take.

Adam Yates on criticism of UAE‘s tactics yesterday: ‘We’re not racing a bunch of farmers.’ July 6, 2023

110km to go: The gap to the break is over 3 minutes now. The main GC teams are amassed around their guys in the peloton.

Jai Hindley tells GCN he was initially thinking of the GC battle yesterday, not the stage,  but there's a long way to go in this race.

Snazzy threads

A post shared by AG2R CITROËN TEAM (@ag2rcitroenteam) A photo posted by on

105km to go: EF Education sports director Andreas Klier tells the TV that Neilson Powless might want to win the stage but that'll be up to the likes of Bora, Jumbo and UAE and how hard they chase.

100km to go: It's all quiet as it's about 5km to the intermediate sprint.

97km to go: Bryan Coquard, MAthieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert seem to shape up for the sprint.

95km to go: They just roll through with Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) taking the maximum 20 points. Wout van Aert rolls through second.

93km to go: At the other end of the race Mark Cavendish (Astan Qazaqstan) is among those riders dropped from the peloton.

93km to go: Wout van Aert's 17 points at that intermediate sprint move him up to third in the green jersey competition.

However, both he and Coquard are some distance behind Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck). The green jersey holder has 150, Coquard has 104 and van Aert 92.

Col d'Aspin

We're coming to the bottom of the first major ascent of the day, Col d'Aspin. It's not the worst of the day but it is a first category climb.

88km to go: It's 11km to the top of the Aspin and Kasper Asgreen is pushing the pace in the break. The breaks advantage is 3-22.

86km to go: Jumbo have challenged Bora's position at the head of the peloton.

85km to go: Maxim van Gils (Lotto-Dstny) has to stop to get a front wheel puncture changed in the peloton.

Bora have re-established control of the pace.

It's worth noting that there's 3,700m of climbing on today's stage and the vast majority is packed into this 80km or so.

From now until the finish the riders are mostly either going up or down, rarely flat.

82km to go: Asgreen is still at the front of the break. Bit of pressure on Alaphilippe this I'd say.

Mark Cavendish is with lead-out man Cees Bol, not sure where the rest of the sprinters are. He doesn't look like he's having a great time, unsurprisingly.

81km to go: Jonathan Vaughters, the EF Education boss who is workign for TV this week, tells us he thinks that Mark Cavendish will win in the back end of the race if he wins at all. 

That is, as Vaughters points out, what he did in the Giro d'Italia . 

80km to go: Jai Hindley loses one wing-man as Jordi Meeus goes out of the back of the peloton. As the teams designated sprinter he wasnt' goign to be a whole heap of help for the rest of the day so that's not really a big loss for the Australian.

80km to go: There are 3km left to the top of the Col d'Aspin and, well, Asgreen continues to lead the break up the mountain.

80km to go: Jumbo-Visma come to the front of the peloton and wrestle control away from Bora-Hansgrohe.

Meanwhile, up front Wout van Aert now comes to the front of the break in a move that seems to make no obvious sense. 

Sagan goes out the back of the bunch.

79km to go: Coquard and others are beginning to be dropped from the break.

79km to go: Agreen has been dropped to. His work for Alaphilippe done for the day. Nikias Arndy (Bahrain Victorious) and Matteo Trentin (UAE Emirates) also fall out the back of the break.

Jumbo seem to be plotting something here but its not terribly clear what it is.

78km to go: Presumably Jumbo want a higher pace in the peloton to put pressure on Jai Hindley, Pogacar and co, but they don't want to catch the break just yet and so have told van Aert to up the pace there too.

I imagine they'd like to catch van Aert on the final climb or perhaps at the top of the Tourmalet.

Some of the descent of the Tourmalet is quite shallow as is the opening slopes of the last climb so an engine like van Aert would be very useful there.

76km to go: Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) powers out of second wheel to take the maximum KOM points at the top of the climb.

He's in the virtual polka-dot jersey now.

74km to go: In the peloton, the pace set by Jumbo continues to dispatch riders out the back as they approach the top of the Col d'Aspin.

73km to go: It's worth a time check to remind ourselves the break has 3-18 on the peloton as they descend.

It's nice and dry on the road and Mathieu van der Poel is railing the corners, with van Aert struggling a touch to keep up.

71km to go: Van der Poel flicks the elbow for van Aert to come through but the Jumbo rider shakes his head. It looks like the Dutchman is trying to split things up here but to what end it's not really clear.

It's all settled down again now.

70km to go: The fierce pace up the Col d'Aspin has reduced the break's number to closer to 15 riders.

64km to go: There has been some reforming out front and the break now stands at 16 riders.

Bora are leading the descent in the peloton.

Annemiek van Vleuten wins another Giro Donne stage

Dutchwoman Annemiek van Vleuten won yet another Giro Donne stage today.

The pink jersey wearer has a nigh on unassailable lead in the pink jersey of 3-56 over her closest challenger Juliet Labous (DSM-firmenich).

The Movistar leader has won three stages of this race so far, and you wouldn't bet against her winning more. There's three left to go.

60km to go: Bora are back in charge at the front of the peloton as the race begins to climb again.

59km to go: Jai Hindley drops a bidon as a team-mate hands it to him thankfully it doesn't get caught in a wheel or cause him any trouble.

That could have been nasty.

58km to go: Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal - Quick-Step) attacks in the break with over 11km to go to the summit of the Tourmalet. James Shaw (Ef Education-EasyPost) is on his wheel, but no-one else is.

58km to go: To my eyes James Shaw's socks look alarming close to the UCI legal limit.

In case you don't know the sport's governing body says they can't go above half-shin. They even have a special machine to measure them that they use at stage starts sometimes.

57km to go: Van Aert is dragging  the break back to Shaw and Alaphilippe.

And he's caught them.

57km to go: Mathieu van der Poel is dropped from the break. There are 12 riders in the front group now.

56km to go: Jumbo-Visma has amassed at the front of the peloton again as Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) is pictured going out of the back along with Cycling Weekly columnist and British Champion Fred Wright.

56km to go: I've just spotted that Adam Yates, who lost the yellow jersey yesterday, still has his yellow shades on.

Letting go is hard.

55km to go: The gap to the break has come down a bit by the way to 4-28.

It looks like Bora-Hansgrohe may be somewhat depleted in numbers but I can't be 100% sure from the pictures.

54km to go: It's 7km to the top of the Tourmalet but it's nice and sunny at the top so fears for wet roads may prove unfounded.

Bob Jungles (Bora-Hansgrohe) is dropped from the peloton.

53km to go: Jumbo are pressing on and the gap to the break has fallen to 3-35.

Bora don't have many team-mates left around the yellow jersey, though Emanuel Buchmann seems to be there.

51km to go: The gap to the break has stabalised at 3-30 but the peloton is greatly reduced now.

Jumbo have four riders with Vingegaard .

Hindley and Pogačar are joking with each other in the peloton just behind them.

51km to go: Van Aert continues to set the pace at the fornt of the break. James Shaw and Neilson Powless behind him look unfussed but further back ther are some faces in pain.

There's 3.7km to the top of the Tourmalet .

50km to go: Jumbo lose Dylan van Baarle from their mountain train.

They up the pace nd only Hindley and Pogačar can go with them. Vingegaard has two team-mates.

Up front Powless may be in trouble and is back at

Jai Hindley in trouble

50km to go: Hindley has been dropped. He's got no-one with him. There's 3km to the top of the Tourmalet still.

49km to go: Jai Hindley has lost 40 seconds to the Vingegaard, Pogacar group already. 

That's the equivalent of his advantage over the Dane on GC.

Vingegaard attacks!

48km to go: With just over 1km to go to the top Vingegaard attacks and Pogacar goes with him.

47km to go: Wout van Aert and the break come through the coloured smoke from fans' flares at the top of the Tourmalet.

Vingegard and Pogacar are close to joining up with them, just 46 second back.

Hindley is nearly two minutes behind them. He's losing big time today.

45km to go: Over the top of the Tourmalet Wout van Aert sits up a bit to wait for his team leader and 

Halland Johannessen is the first over the top of the mountain he's take the five thousand euro prize.

45km to go: This Tour is rapidly becoming all about Vingegaard and Pogacar today. If this gap persists Hindley will be some distance back and everyone else will be even further back.

Hindley is in the peloton led by UAE Emirates, who aren't exactly going to be chasing too too hard.

43km to go: Vingegaard is leading Pogacar down the descent with Powless close behind.

41km to go: French president Emmanuel Macron is busy glad handing people at the finish, in case you were interested.

Vingegaard has now bridged up to van Aert who'll do the lions share of the work down this descent.

48km to go: There are still a group out front which includes James Shaw, Reuben Guerrero and Michal Kwiatkowski they have 31 seconds on Vingegaard and Pogacar and co.

Behind them is the peloton at 2-34 behind the front of the race. That's where Jai Hindley now is.

38km to go: Vingegaard and Pogacar are passed the most twisty bit of the descent. Van Aert will likely earn his keep here.

32km to go: The distance is ticking down very fast on the descent as van Aert drags the Vingegaard group to within 10 second of the front of the race.

Hindley is now two minutes back. He'll definitely lose the jersey today.

30km to go: It's not that steep but they're flying down hill at 75kph.

28km to go: The good news for Hindley is although the time gaps would be were they to remain as they are now he'd still be on the third step of the podium such is his advantage of over a minute to his team-mate Emmanuel Buchmann.

25km to go: Vingegaard and co have now caught what was left of the break. the only teams with two riders are Jumbo with van Aert and vingegaaard and EF with Shaw and Powless.

There's also Halland Johannessen, Guerreiro (who's name I think I spelled wrong earlier, sorry Reuben) and Kwiatkowski.

And, of course, Tadej Pogačar.

24km to go: No-one is going to give van Aert any help here.

24km to go:  Pogačar says something to James Shaw but the British Tour debutant shakes his head.

23km to go: Buchmann is doing a lot of work on the front of the peloton to try and get his leader Hindley back in contention but he's outgunned by van Aert on this terrain. The gap had dropped below 2 minutes briefly but is now back to 2-15.

Van Aert is even putting his leader in a bit of difficulty! He eases up so the gap closes.

20km to go: Despite other teams, like Ineos having riders inthe group and a seeming incentive to work, the gap is going out to the front of the race as the riders get a final feed. It's now 2-25.

17km to go: Tom Southam, DS at EF, scomes on the radio to give his two riders some encouragement.

16km to go : Jonas Vingegaard went up the Tourmalet in 45-11, which is a record according to the bods at the host broadcaster.

The Grupetto is over 20 minutes behind.

16km to go: It's now 2-40 from the leaders to the yellow jersey group. Van Aert is, as some in the sport might say, doing the madness.

Cauterets-Cambasque

A quick reminder of the final climb, which they're just coming onto now. the bottom is fairly fast and you benefit from being in the wheels but the top is pretty vicious, mostly over 10%.

15km to go: Hindley is now 2-48 behind the leaders and has little hope of bringing it back.

14km to go: Buchmann is still slogging away at the front of the peloton. Jonathan Castroviejo, Ineos' reliable mountain engine, is sat behind him but he's not giving him any help.

The British squad have Carlos Rodriguez and Tom Pidcock as thier leaders in this group.

13km to go: The maximum speed achieved on the stage was set by Tadej Pogačar who hit 103kph on one of the descents today.

12km to go: Van Aert shows little signs of tiring, they're doing 37kph and the road is already pointing skyward.

10km to go: Powless looks a little on the limit as van Aert drives on. He knows no one is going to help him.

9km to go: Egan Bernal collects a bottle and hands it to Pidcock. 

9km to go: It's been sunny today and Pogačar sprays some water over himself.

10km to go:  The ticker was wrong a moment ago. The climb looks to be getting a bit steeper as they enter a set of lacets. 

Neilson Powless is losing contact a bit. He's struggling more than his team-mate Shaw, which is a turn up for the books.

9.5km to go: A grimace is starting to creep across van Aert's face. The speed remains high though.

8.6km to go: Ineos have now started to work at the front of the peloton and the gap to the leaders has come down a touch to 2-30.

8km to go: Buchmann has dropped back but is still in the group.

7km to go: The terrain is rolling its not relentlessly uphill if they want to take back time it's here that strength in numbers would be of some use for Ineos and the rest of the peloton.

7km to go: Van Aert has been given the most aggressive rider prize for the day. Hardly surprising.

6.5km to go: They're going pretty fast still but in 1km time it's going to really ramp up.

The gap is 2-25 to the peloton.

5km to go: Neilson Powless is dropped from the front group. He's got his prize for today so it's not all bad for him. 

Van Aert is still drilling it. Not sure how much he has left though.

4.8km to go: The gradient is biting as you can really see the riders have slowed down.

Shaw is distanced. Kwiatkowski and Halland Johansson are still there.

4.6km to go: Vingegaard goes. Pogacar follows.

4.4km to go: Kwiatkowski is trying to bridge back up to them.

4.2km to go: Pogacar and Vingegaard look pretty comfortable. Kwiatkowski has made it back on.

The peloton, by the way, are 2.27 back.

4km to go: Vingegaard seems happy to set the pace, he's not looked at the others for a turn.

3.8km to go: Kwiatkowski is dropping back a bit a bike length has opened up and as Vingegaard gets out of the saddle he is decisively distanced.

3.6km to go: There's only two of them but they're moving quicker than the peloton, the gap has expanded to 2-37.

3km to go: This tour is really just the two of them now. Vingegaard is in and out of the saddle but Pogačar remains firmly in his.

2.8km to go: Egan Bernal swings off from the peloton. He's been in domestique mode this afternoon.

Jayco set the pace, working for Simon Yates, to limit his loses.

2.7km to go:  Pogačar attacks! And there's a gap!

Its a big one.

2.6km to go: The Dane can't respond and the Slovenian is flying he has 8 seconds.

2.5km to go: Rodriguez and Yates have clipped off the fornt of the peloton.

2.1km to go: Pogacar's pace looks ot have dropepd a touch. But he's holding the 8 second gap.

2km to go: Pogacar looks back to judge the gap he has. Can he up the pace again? Vingegaard is working his way back. Possibly. It's finely balanced.

1.5km to go: It's flattening off a bit now and Pogacar is grimacing as he tries to press home his advantage the clock says its going out to 13 seconds.

1km to go: Under the flamme rouge Pogacar pushes on. It's 17 seconds. He's about a minute down from yesterday, this'll make it a lot closer.

500m to go: Pogacar will get 10 bonus second on the line, Vingegaard will get six.

The gap is 23 seconds.

This bit is steep. Pogacar gets out the saddle.

 Pogačar bows in celebration as he wins the stage. 

His only real rival for the tour de France comes home 23 second down.

What a stage. Johansson comes home in third.

Johannessen sorry.

Hindley is trying to limit his losses.

Guerreiro comes in fourth. Shaw fifth - that's a hell of a ride from him.

Rodriguez and Hindley and Simon Yates are all coming in 2-39 down on Pogačar.

Adam Yates and Tom Pidcock and co come in 3-10 down.

What a stage that was! I'm off to write a race report.

And maybe get a stiff drink.

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Stage 21 - 07/23/2023

Tour de France 2023 Route stage 6: Tarbes - Cauterets

The riders clip into their pedals in Tarbes to enter the Pyrenees. Following an opening on the flat, a warm-up climb on the Côte de Capvern-les-Bains (5.6 kilometres at 4.8%), and another flat phase, the first big climb on the route is the Col d’Aspin (12 kilometres at 6.5%). The riders then descend into the valley of the Adour River, only to go up again on the most used climb on the Tour de France. The Col du Tourmalet adds up to 17.1 kilometres, while the average gradient sits at 7,3%. After descending to Luz-Saint-Sauveur the route follows the Gave de Gavarnie upstream to Pierrefitte-Nestales. That’s where the finish climb kicks in.

The first part is not very special, it all comes down to the last 4 kilometres. That’s were a section of 2.5 kilometres at double digit gradients kicks in. The climb then evens out for a bit before the final kilometre goes up at 6.6%. The entire climb is 16 kilometres long and averaging 5.4%.

Le Tour finished twice before in the mountains above Cauterets. In 1989 it was Miguel Indurain who triumphed at Le Cambasque, in 1995 Richard Virenque took the spoils on the nearby pass Les Crêtes du Lys.

The first three riders on the line gain time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds.

Ride the route yourself? Download GPX stage 6 2023 Tour de France.

Another interesting read: results 6th stage 2023 Tour de France.

Tour de France 2023 stage 6: route, profiles, more

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