2026 Tour de France Stage 6 Results & Recap
Stage 6 of the 2026 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
It's far too early to say that the contest for this Tour de France is over, but it certainly felt like that when Tadej Pogačar (UEX) crushed all of his rivals on the first big day in the mountains. After attacking halfway up the Col du Tourmalet, with 43km remaining, the world champion eased steadily away from his rivals, with Jonas Vingegaard (TVL) once again the pick of them. At the finish, he was a huge 2'38" ahead of the Dane, who came in 19 seconds clear of the next group that was led in by Isaac Del Toro (UEX), ahead of Remco Evenepoel (RBH), Paul Seixas (DCT), Florian Lipowitz (RBH), Juan Ayuso (LTK) and Mattias Skjelmose (LTK).
Two days after ceding the yellow jersey to Torstein Træen, Pogačar retook the race lead from the Norwegian, who, like so many, was dropped on the climb of the Tourmalet and then crashed when descending it. Vingegaard is 2'42" back, Del Toro is third at 3'27", with 33 seconds covering the Mexican and seventh-placed Lipowitz.
The stage began with an attack from the start by Victor Campenaerts (TVL), who was joined by Huub Artz (LOI) and green jersey Mads Pedersen (LTK). The trio built a lead of a minute until Artz fell foul of the race commissaires for an improper position on his bike. The Dutchman remonstrated with the referees then dropped back.
Pedersen's goal was the intermediate sprint and once he'd breezed through it ahead of Campenaerts, he eased off. Campenaerts was reeled in soon after, but he and teammate Matteo Jorgenson (TVL) kept trying to split the front group on the undulations that preceded the cat 1 ascent of the Aspin.
Ben O'Connor (JAY) had built a one-minute lead going onto the Aspin, but is quickly reduced as UAE Team Emirates XRG took the stage under control. After Florian Vermeersch (UEX) had led into the climb, Nils Politt (UEX) and then Tim Wellens led up it, thinning the peloton behind them.
Wellens picked up again on the Tourmalet, before handing over to Felix Grossschartner and then Brandon McNulty. Coming onto the steepest section of the climb approaching the resort of La Mongie, Adam Yates upped the pace even more, reducing the front group to around a dozen members.
Pogačar attacked in the company of Del Toro, although the Mexican, like so many before, didn't stay with the world champion for long. Coming into La Mongie, Del Toro fell back and soon passed by Vingegaard, who took up the pursuit.
For a couple of kilometres, the Dane held the gap to less than 10 seconds. However, in the final 2km it began to edge up. At the summit. Pogačar was 30 seconds clear. Pushing hard on the descent, he doubled that lead going into Luz-Saint-Sauveur, where the final 18.7km cat 2 climb up to the finish began.
In what was effectively a head-to-head time trial to the line at Gavarnie-Gèdre, Pogačar took another 90 seconds or so out of his main rival as he completed his longest solo winning break at the Tour.
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