German champion Emanuel Buchmann has lost his own top position in the overall standings of the Tour de France, but he still received extra praise from his team boss Ralph Denk.
Ralph Denk praises Emanuel Buchmann
"Emu has done a valuable job in keeping the gap within limits. It was great of him to put himself at the service of the team. We are happy to have him in our ranks," said Denk after the sixth stage with the first mountain top finish.
Buchmann provided important assistance for captain Jai Hindley on the second stage of the Pyrenees, but he still lost the yellow jersey to the Danish defending champion Jonas Vingegaard. In the end, however, the 30-year-old had to pay tribute to his efforts and lost 6:26 minutes to stage winner Tadej Pogacar. As a result, Buchmann slipped from fourth to 15th place in the classification.
Emanuel Buchmann sets the pace
"It wasn't my very best day today, but certainly not a bad one either. I had to work hard," said Buchmann, who had set the pace for Hindley in the chasing group until around five kilometres before the finish in Cauterets-Cambasque. However, the duo from the German Bora-Hansgrohe team had no chance against Pogacar and Vingegaard on the Tourmalet, the penultimate mountain"The two were simply too strong, we had no chance. Then we can live with the fact that we lost the jersey."
The goal remains a podium finish for Hindley in Paris. "We're third, which is a good result for us. If it was like this in Paris, we would take it. That's fine for us. It looks like Pogacar and Vingegaard are in a league of their own," said Denk. Australian Hindley is 1:34 minutes behind Vingegaard in third place in the overall standings, but is already 1:40 minutes ahead of Simon Yates from Great Britain in fourth place.
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