Tadej Pogačar

Arguably the two most exciting talents in the men's peloton dominated the story on the longest stage of this year's Tour de France.

You can select 'Manage settings' for more information and to manage your choices. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Your Privacy Controls. Find out more about how we use your information in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. Click here to find out more about our partners. - Information about your device and internet connection, including your IP address

Pogacar now leads the Tour by four seconds ahead of American rider Neilson Powless, thanks to the bonus seconds based on stage placings.

“For sure the yellow jersey is nicer than the green one but I’ve enjoyed the yellow and I’ll enjoy the green as well,” he said. Friday sees the Tour’s first mountain stage and a return to a place where the UAE Team Emirates rider made his name. Van Aert dropped off on the hilly final section of the stage and eventually lost more than seven minutes.

On the way to his wins in the 2020 and 2021 Tours, Tadej Pogacar took the yellow jersey in the mountains, but on Thursday all he needed was the modest Cote ...

“For sure the yellow jersey is nicer than the green one but I’ve enjoyed the yellow and I’ll enjoy the green as well,” he said. The Belgian will now swap his yellow jersey for green as leader of the sprint classification. Friday sees the Tour’s first mountain stage and a return to a place where the UAE Team Emirates rider made his name. Van Aert dropped off on the hilly final section of the stage and eventually lost more than seven minutes. Simmons couldn’t keep up with van Aert, who kept his lead stable at just over a minute with 25 kilometers remaining, but the Belgian didn’t have enough energy left to stay in front on the repeated climbs. It was super hard for the final climb and hectic and everything.

'It's more on us with the jersey, but you can never turn it down' says UAE Team Emirates rider McNulty.

The key thing will be to control the other riders and keep on fighting." "For sure, there'll be war between the favourites tomorrow, but he's won two Tours and it's looking good for the third. He asked us to put down as hard a pace as possible and he could just finish it off." Then it was back to pacing and a really tough day." "We were never expecting the stage to be so hard, that so many attacks and Van Aert going off the front," Majka said. "We had the legs as a team, and I could see after the first climb [of the final three -Ed.] that Tadej was in great shape.

Arguably the two most exciting talents in the men's peloton dominated the story on the longest stage of this year's Tour de France.

I’m super happy to take the win and anything else is a bonus. Unbowed, he then took on the Tour’s longest day in aggressive fashion. “Lots of guys were pulling and in the end the peloton was stronger.

Twice-defending champion Tadej Pogačar has won this year's longest Tour stage from Binche to Longwy.

The whole team committed to it." "The bonus seconds at the end took it away. Pogačar sped away from his compatriot in the last few metres to take the win.

Tadej Pogacar outdueled Jonas Vingegaard to win the Tour de France's first mountain stage and extend his overall standings lead.

Pogacar reinforced his status as the man to beat at this year’s Tour given Vingegaard is his biggest threat. Vingegaard then made his move past Pogacar, as they both passed a gassed Kamna, only to see Pogacar counter to overtake him in the final dozen pedal strokes to take a second consecutive stage victory. “When Jonas attacked, he was strong, but I said, yeah, my boys [teammates] were working all day, I had to push to the finish line,” said Pogacar, who wore special shoes Friday to commemorate opening a cancer research foundation.

The GC picture below Pogačar and his yellow jersey changed considerably on the first summit finish of the 2022 race with all of his main rivals losing time. It ...

Roglič who started the stage still suffering from his stage 5 crash moved up 15 places to 13th but is still close to three minutes back on Pogačar. Gaudu limited his losses to 19 seconds on the line with Enric Mas and Romain Bardet finishing just behind him. Ineos had already seen Dani Martínez dropped before the final dash for the line but it was still a surprise to see Adam Yates lose contact when Vingegaard kicked and Pogačar went after him. Adam Yates lost 29 seconds on the day with his teammate Martinez shipping 45 precious seconds. The Australian will now have to target stage wins after his GC challenge totally ended today. In the overall standings Pogačar leads the race with a margin of 35 seconds over Vingegaard, and Thomas at 1:10. Yates remains in contention at 1:18, and Gaudu is up to fifth at 1:31, with Bardet just a further second back.

Pogačar beat Jonas Vingegaard in the sprint for the line, overtaking solo attacker Lennard Kämna with just metres to spare.

Meanwhile, Pogačar attacked himself, but Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) followed with Roglič swiftly behind. At this point Kämna kicked once again, leaving Geschke trailing behind him as he made an attempt for the stage win. Other teams started to move to the front by this point, with Ineos Grenadiers, Jumbo-Visma and Groupama-FDJ all jostling for position with the final climb in mind. The break soon became four, though, with Schachmann and Barthe unable to hang on as Kämna, Teuns, Durbridge and Geschke took the mantle on. Simon Geschke and Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Victorious) were able to bridge back across after a period, though, creating a group of five out front. Filippo Ganna led the bunch up the hill, pulling his Ineos teammates along to reduce the deficit to the six riders leading. With 100km left in the stage, the breakaway's lead stood at 2-30. UAE Team Emirates continued to lead the peloton to ensure the pace didn't dwindle too much. Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) relinquished control of the overall lead yesterday, so had to settle for wearing the green jersey instead. Bora-Hansgrohe were aggressive in trying to push the issue, though, with Lennard Kämna, Marco Haller and Maximilian Schachmann all increasing the tempo. UAE Team Emirates didn't start the stage in the best way, with multiple riders, including Pogačar, suffering mechanical issues. A 176km stage, the day started in Tomblaine, with La Planches des Belles Filles lasting for 7km at an 8.7% gradient.

Tadej Pogačar won his second Tour de France stage in a row in the first summit finish of the race to extend his lead in the yellow jersey Friday.

It was a big, big goal to win today," Pogačar said. The mountain hits a 24% gradient near the top and the last section is on gravel, making it one of the Tour's most fearsome climbs. When Jonas attacked, he was so strong," Pogačar said.

There are still 14 stages to go this year, but barring injury or incident this already looks like being the 23-year-old's race to lose.

“I tried to hold back at the start so I wasn’t spent at the end, I didn’t want to blow there. “It was really difficult, especially in the end,” he said. Pogacar had carried Thomas and Vingegaard, doggedly stuck to his wheel, all the way up the seven-kilometre test.

Pogacar increased his advantage at the top of the general classification as he won on top of the iconic La Planche des Belles Filles wearing the yellow ...

We’re all in there, and we’ll try to use those numbers not just attacking for the hell of it but trying to use them, and we’ll see what we can do.” Vingegaard did take time from Pogacar in the highest mountains last year, and the champion took care to praise his rival at the finish. It was in my mind already since the route was [announced] and it was a big goal to win today.” History rhymed two years on, and the increase in his overall race lead to 35 seconds was secondary to the psychological blow of withstanding and ultimately crushing Vingegaard's gutsy assault. Then came the relentless Pogacar, a luminous yellow juggernaut passing barely a bike length from the finish and glancing back over his shoulder as if to ask the Dane whether he could respond. Yet the painfully steep finale to La Planche takes a toll up high where the asphalt road turns to gravel track, a price too high for a heartbroken Kamna who was overtaken in the final 100m by Pogacar, now trailing his fiercest rival, last year's runner-up Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma).

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) took a second consecutive stage win on stage 7 of the 2022 Tour de France, narrowly beating 2021 rival Jonas Vingegaard ...

Geraint Thomas was the best of the rest, coming in alongside Kämna and moving up to third overall. Pogačar was the only one who could follow, the arch-rivals overhauling Kämna barely 50 metres from home, and charging upwards in a slow-motion sprint, mano a mano. The last riders to survive from the breakaway were Simon Geschke (Cofidis) and Giro superhero Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe), who’d had the help of teammate Maximilian Schachmann in the day’s escape.

Pogacar punished all his key rivals except Vingegaard, with Geraint Thomas losing 14sec and Adam Yates 29, as some riders dismounted and pushed up the ...

Sports Sports Sports

Tadej Pogačar puts early stranglehold on yellow jersey on emotional return to scene of his dramatic 2020 time trial victory.

Vingegaard confirmed he is the most dangerous, and nearly pipped Pogačar for what would have been his first stage win. “We want to take this stage win,” he said. “I had this stage already in mind for many months,” Pogačar said. Brandon McNulty, George Bennett, and then Raja Majka took pulls that decimated the group behind them. “We saw many guys super strong, and next week we have many mountains. Upon cancellation, you will have access to your membership through the end of your paid year.

Close to where Tadej Pogacar sealed his first Tour de France victory two years ago, he moved a step nearer to a third with a stage win on La Planche des ...

Jonas is one of the strongest climbers in the world, probably the best climber in the world. Pogacar said: ‘It was really difficult, especially in the end. Tadej Pogacar moved a step nearer to a third Tour de France victory with a stage win on Friday

'He just came with 20m to go, and I didn't have an answer' says Jumbo-Visma leader.

Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates squad led up the category-1 ascent before Rafal Majka swung over just as tarmac gave way to gravel in the final kilometre. "So far he's riding really good." The legs felt good so I’m happy."

LA PLANCHE DES BELLES FILLES, France — From the moment Tadej Pogacar heard the Tour de...

The mountain was the site of Pogacar’s breakout moment on the 2020 Tour, when he took the yellow jersey from fellow Slovenian Roglic on the penultimate stage in a time trial and went on to win the race. The mountain hits a 24% gradient near the top and the last section is on gravel, making it one of the Tour’s most fearsome climbs. He placed fourth behind Pogacar, Vingegaard and Vingegaard’s teammate Primoz Roglic, who was racing in pain after dislocating his shoulder when he crashed into a bale of straw on Wednesday. Pogacar caught, first, Lennard Kamna, who came agonizingly close to a breakaway win, and then Jonas Vingegaard with one last sprint at the top of La Planche des Belles Filles, a ski resort in the Vosges mountains of eastern France, near the German border. “I had to push to the finish line.” When Jonas attacked, he was so strong,“ Pogacar said.

Tadej Pogacar took the next step in his bid for a third consecutive Tour de France title, grabbing the race lead after the sixth of 21 stages.

“Every time I win, it’s even better,” said Pogacar, who beat Australian Michael Matthews by a bike length. Greg LeMond is the lone American to officially lead a Tour de France. The three-time Tour winner last did so in 1991. Powless finished in the same time as Pogacar in Thursday’s stage, but Pogacar passed him in the overall standings because of his 10-second time bonus for the stage victory.

The defending champion Tadej Pogacar won stage six of the Tour de France, from Binche to Longwy, sprinting across the line and into the yellow jersey.

What Pogacar is doing for this Tour is reducing it to a one-horse race. “We will try to control [the race] but if it’s not possible, it won’t be a disaster,” he said, “but I would like to go for it.” “Super Planche des Belles Filles is special for me,” he said of the Vosges climb on which he shattered the hapless Primoz Roglic’s grip on the race lead in September 2020. “He’s won the Tour twice but he’s putting on a show for the fans, giving us riders a hard time. Friday’s summit finish at Super Planche des Belles Filles, where he executed a remarkable coup to win his first Tour in 2020, is, the 23-year-old said, “special” to him. “It gives confidence and motivation for everyone in the team.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) took his seventh Tour de France stage victory on the longest stage of this year's race, a 219.9-kilometre slog from Binche ...

Rafał Majka drove the pace on the steepest ramp to the flamme rouge where Brandon McNulty took a last turn to set up Pogačar’s punch for the line. As the peloton drove up the climb, Van Aert drifted through and out the back, saying goodbye to the race lead in the process. However, with Fuglsang back in the peloton, Van Aert and Simmons seemed to find another gear and their gap yo-yoed back out and hovered around two minutes for 20 frantic kilometres. After the furious opening phases, stage 6 entered a very quiet second act. Tadej Pogačar is, quite simply, on another planet. Tadej Pogačar is, quite simply, on another planet.

Two-time defending champion Tadej Pogačar won a sprint finish to the 137-mile Stage 6 leg of the Tour de France to take the overall lead -- and the yellow ...

Van Aert dropped off on the hilly final section of the stage and eventually lost more than seven minutes. "It was super hard for the final climb and hectic and everything. "Every time I win it's even better," Pogačar said.

Defending champion Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) moved into yellow at the 2022 Tour de France with a brilliant sprint win on an astonishing Stage 6.

It was super hard and hectic on the final climb but I guess I had good legs to press in the end.” The strongest guy went in the breakaway and a lot of guys were pulling in the peloton. On the race’s longest – and fastest – day, the Slovenian superstar zipped clear of his rivals to win the uphill sprint at Longwy as Belgium's Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) conceded the yellow jersey in style. The Frenchman was caught on the final rise into Longwy after UAE Team Emirates brought their man to the front. Van Aert eventually succumbed to the inevitable, the plucky Stage 4 winner caught and spat out on the last of three categorised climbs with just over 10km remaining. An untimely mechanical on the first climb of the day was not enough to derail Van Aert, whose presence ensured that the advantage would quickly grow above the four-minute mark.