Stage 6

The road

At the start

The Tourmalet, and the real Tour

Træen still leads by 7:53, but the two men who matter are level with each other — Pogačar fourth, Vingegaard fifth, separated by nothing at all. Alex Molenaar does not start. UAE Team Emirates marked this as their first five-star day of the race: the Col d'Aspin, then the Col du Tourmalet, then a new finishing climb into the natural amphitheatre at Gavarnie-Gèdre, in more canicule heat.

How it was won

1. 1127 km to go

   Green-jersey skirmish at Pouzac

   The day opens on the points battle: Victor Campenaerts, Mads Pedersen and Huub Artz break clear for the intermediate sprint at Pouzac, but Artz is admonished for his riding position and sits up, and once Pedersen has the points he too drifts back.

2. 268 km to go

   Aspin thins the field to 17

   Ben O'Connor's long move off the Côte de Mauvezin is finally caught on the Col d'Aspin, where Lenny Martinez darts clear for the mountain points; behind, UAE simply keep turning the screw until the lead group is down to seventeen and Tom Pidcock is dropped.

3. 343 km to go

   Del Toro detonates the Tourmalet

   Onto the Col du Tourmalet Adam Yates winds up the tempo before handing off to Del Toro, and 5km from the summit — bursting out of an avalanche tunnel — the Mexican unleashes a surge so brutal that only Pogačar can hold the wheel.

4. 438 km to go

   Pogačar rides the Tour apart

   Pogačar counters and is gone, cresting the Tourmalet alone in the rainbow stripes. Vingegaard, unable to match the acceleration, is left chasing in no-man's-land with Seixas distanced and Evenepoel already cracked far behind — one surge, and the race is broken.

5. 526 km to go

   Forty seconds on the descent

   On the technical, treacherous plunge off the Tourmalet, Pogačar takes lines nobody else will and carves out another forty seconds — a lead that has already become a chasm.

6. 619 km to go

   Alone up to Gavarnie-Gèdre

   Onto the long, gentle 18.7km haul to Gavarnie-Gèdre, Pogačar settles into a metronomic tempo while Vingegaard, with no answer and no allies, can only watch the world champion's advantage keep growing.

7. 7At the line

   A crushing statement in the Pyrenees

   Pogačar solos across the line 2:38 clear of Vingegaard, Del Toro completing a UAE 1-3, and with the yellow jersey back on his shoulders the world champion has turned the 2026 Tour into a procession before the first rest day.

The result