We're not even a week into the Tour de France, and already things feel like they're wrapping up. A monument like the Tourmalet opening up GC margins of over two-and-a-half minutes is the stuff of week three, not day six.
By the time the Visma-Lease a Bike team regroups at the finish in Gavarnie-Gèdre, the wind has dropped as if it might rain. Nothing like a bit of pathetic fallacy to rub in the 2:42 general classification lead Tadej Pogačar now has over their leader, Jonas Vingegaard. Other riders roll across the line in dribs and drabs. The spectacle put on by cycling's greatest showman was received with deafening applause by the crowd, but the mood left in its wake is notably subdued.
No one doubted that Pogačar would win on stage six, and no-one doubted, either, that he would do so by attacking on the famed climb — a fact which makes things all the more sour. The most storied rider winning on the most storied mountain is obviously a fitting narrative, but even stories telling of the tedium of his dominance have become repetitive.
"Yes." Vingegaard's teammate Matteo Jorgenson answers bluntly when asked if the Slovenian's devastating attack came at the moment he expected. "I wouldn't say I'm disappointed. I think Vingegaard gave it his all on the Tourmalet. It was just the legs."
For a team who started this Tour so glamorously atop Montjuïc in the Team Time Trial, they've fallen from that high with a wince-worthy thud, and only the knowledge of Vingegaard being second best to the sport's greatest champion to soften the landing. On the Tourmalet, things didn't go to plan when it mattered most.
"The game plan was to put one or two guys in the break," explains Jorgenson. "I was surprised to see sprinter teams chasing Victor [Campenaerts] for the intermediate sprint. That changed a lot of the stage because then the first 50 kilometres they did the work for UAE. From there we entered the hilly zone and it was much easier to control. I think that's where our plan went a little bit wrong in that we just didn't get a guy in the break."
Rivals UAE Team Emirates-XRG was a monolith in comparison, with Isaac Del Toro the last to help his leader move clear. But the overriding matter is that Pogačar, as he almost always is, was better on this occasion. Vingegaard's chase once he was left solo was a characteristic performance of grit, but also of pathos, and it's hard not to pity the Dane. There's a long way to go until Le Tour crowns its victor in Paris — but the Alps in its backend are high, and mercy is rarely granted by the mountains to a man clawing back a deficit with others in tow. To put Pogačar's current time gap into perspective, last year he ousted Vingegaard by 4 minutes and 24 seconds.
"It was a very tough day. I couldn't follow, and I had to settle at my own pace. I'm disappointed, I have to be, but sometimes that's life and I cannot change it," says a dejected Vingegaard. "It was not my best day."
Image credit: Zac Williams/SWpix.com
Pogačar's bow across the finish line crossed the T of a terrifying performance, but feelings of discouragement admittedly outweighed marvel. Is that it? Finis?
But if there's anything we can learn from stage six, it's that things can change fast. Torstein Træen expected to stay in yellow for at least a couple of days after plucking it from the shoulders of none other than Pogačar on the stage to Foix — a dream ended by a mistake as simple as a wheel collision with fellow teammate Anders Halland Johannessen. The Norwegian has since withdrawn from the race. Crashes, mishaps, illness are all part of the Tour's narrative engine, twisting the plot when we least expect.
For the cynical of us whose hopes of even a morsel of a GC battle is dwindling, there are, as usual, stories elsewhere. The trail of chasers we have in Del Toro, Remco Evenepoel, Paul Seixas, and Florian Lipowitz up the Tourmalet is an encouraging glimpse of the podium fight upon which we might gorge. And even if we can't get the story we want out of Pog (because, let's face it, seeing him challenged is what we're here for), then at least we can have fun ranking each of his domestiques, as a chirpy Felix Großschartner inclined at the finish line:
"For sure we make jokes about it. But everyone is here to give 100 percent. Some days, I have a better day, some days those guys have a better day."
For now, we're allowed to be a bit miffed. Despite the sky's looming grey tinge, people continue drinking in the bars around the finish line. Whether in celebration of the day, or commiseration at the likeliness of it all — it's hard to tell. So if you're unsure of what to do with yourself now that this year's winner looks to be decided, maybe pour yourself a beer of surrender. It's what EF Education-EasyPost's Sean Quinn is doing this evening — still nursing the near-miss of losing the yellow jersey by 28 seconds back on the road into Foix.
"I mean, it is what it is. I don't really know what to say," he says. "I mean I can be proud of the effort, even though I'm not proud of the result. Tadej Pogačar is a good bike rider, so I'll take the L," he shrugs.
