Evenepoel and Del Toro were part of a six-man chase group that also included Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe), Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) and the two Lidl-Trek professionals Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose. The sextet crossed the finish line 2 minutes and 57 seconds behind Pogacar and 19 seconds behind Vingegaard. This meant Vingegaard was now more than two and a half minutes behind Pogacar. The gap is massive, and the trend is clear. However, the race is still too long to speak of a decisive turning point in the battle for the Tour victory.

The previous overall leader, Torstein Traeen (Uno-X Mobility), lost contact with the leading group as early as the middle of the Tourmalet; he also crashed on the descent and rolled towards the finish line a huge way behind, crossing it half an hour behind. His yellow jersey fairy tale is thus already over.

Meanwhile, the general classification has been completely reshuffled. Pogacar leads the race by 2 minutes and 42 seconds ahead of Vingegaard, with Del Toro in third place, 3 minutes and 27 seconds behind. Evenepoel is three seconds behind him, with Ayuso a further four seconds back. Seixas is in fifth place, 3 minutes and 55 seconds behind, whilst Lipowitz, directly behind him, is exactly four minutes adrift.

Lipowitz is “really happy”, even though “his legs weren’t quite up to it on the Tourmalet”

​“I think that was one of my top five victories on the Tour. I had a few flashbacks to Stage 6 of the 2023 Tour de France, when we also climbed the Tourmalet. It was a similar finish back then,” said Pogacar in his winner’s interview. “It’s an incredible victory.” It is already the 23rd stage win in the Tour de France for the 27-year-old Slovenian; he now has 123 stage wins to his name in total.

The competition had no choice but to acknowledge, without a trace of envy, that Pogacar is in a league of his own. “There’s not much you can do against a performance like that,” Lipowitz told ARD. When Pogacar went on the attack on the Tourmalet, no one could keep up. The German did manage to stay on Vingegaard’s wheel for a moment, though. But the Dane was also a class above, so Lipowitz formed a trio with the youngsters Seixas and Del Toro. It was only on the descent from the Tourmalet that the group caught up with Evenepoel and Ayuso. “I think I can be quite happy. My legs weren’t quite up to it on the Tourmalet. After that, I’m obviously not going to ride at the front when I’ve got Remco behind me,” he said.

The UAE’s dominance today means the team now holds all three classification jerseys once again. Whilst Pogacar took the mountains’ jersey after being the first to reach the summit of the Tourmalet, Del Toro is once again the best young rider. Meanwhile, Mads Pedersen (Lidl - Trek) defended his lead in the points classification.

2026 Tour de France – Results of Stage 6

Here’s how Stage 6 of the 2026 Tour de France went

​As soon as Tour director Christian Prudhomme gave the go-ahead for the stage, Victor Campenaerts (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) set off at the front. Huub Artz (Lotto Intermarché), who had finished fourth in the sprint the previous day, followed suit, with Pedersen in the green jersey joining them shortly afterwards. Meanwhile, the race jury criticised Artz’s position on the bike, whereupon he dropped back into the peloton. After 40 kilometres, just before the first mountain classification, the duo had built up a lead of 1 minute 10 seconds.

UAE consistently thwarted further attacks from behind, and Pogacar’s team did not let the leading duo get too far ahead either. The pair managed to hang on until the intermediate sprint at the 60-kilometre mark, where Pedersen secured 25 points – and Max Kanter (XDS Astana Team) was once again the best rider from the peloton – before he eased off shortly afterwards, which ultimately meant Campenaerts was caught.

After that, the race was effectively restarted. Following attacks on the Côte de Mauvezin (3rd category), Ben O’Connor (Team Jayco AlUla) initially emerged as the sole breakaway rider. He took a lead of just under a minute into the climb up the Col d’Aspin (Category 1), 80 kilometres from the finish. Halfway up the twelve-kilometre climb, the Australian was reeled back in by the UAE Team. 1,000 metres from the summit, Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) attacked the still fairly large peloton. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain - Victorious) closed the gap to sprint for ten mountain points alongside his French compatriot and won by the narrowest of margins.

Pogacar launches an attack on the Tourmalet

After a twelve-kilometre descent, the race headed straight into the Col du Tourmalet (HC category). And although UAE set a steady pace there, Traeen ran into trouble ten kilometres from the summit and had to let the leaders pull away. However, the group then shrank significantly after just one and a half kilometres. The two Red Bull captains, Lipowitz and Evenepoel, were isolated, and Tom Pidcock (Pinarello – Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) also lost contact. Shortly afterwards, Seixas was left on his own too.

When Richard Carapaz (EF Education - EasyPost) was also unable to keep up six and a half kilometres from the highest point, the group had shrunk to 14 riders. And it wasn’t long before UAE got down to business. With only Del Toro ahead of Pogacar, it was time to attack. The UAE duo broke away, and even Vingegaard couldn’t keep up. Lipowitz and Seixas latched onto the Dane’s rear wheel, but that didn’t last long. However, Del Toro was also unable to stay with his team captain.

Pogacar rode through La Mongie on his own, but Vingegaard initially kept the gap steady at just under ten seconds; this eventually widened to half a minute. Behind him, Lipowitz, Seixas and Del Toro grouped together, trailing by 1 minute 30 seconds. A further 20 seconds behind them came Evenepoel, Juan Ayuso, Mattias Skjelmose (both Lidl–Trek) and Sepp Kuss (Team Visma | Lease a Bike).

Vingegaard’s rivals are divided

On the descent, Pogacar extended his lead over Vingegaard to more than a minute, whilst the groups led by Lipowitz and Evenepoel merged and, in turn, reduced the gap to the Dane to half a minute.

On the 18.7-kilometre-long final climb, however, Vingegaard’s pursuers lacked cohesion. Evenepoel, in particular, put in the work, but his attempts to rattle the competition largely came to nothing. This was in contrast to Pogacar, who kept pushing on and was thus able to build up a lead of two and a half minutes. The group behind him failed to close the gap. In the sprint for third place, Evenepoel was the first to attack, but was then countered by Del Toro. Lipowitz, who remained part of the group until the very end, finished sixth.