Tadej Pogačar wins Tour de France stage 6 and claims Souvenir Jacques Goddet prize on Col du Tourmalet

Tadej Pogačar has won stage 6 of the Tour de France after a characteristically dominant display that started 4.1km from the summit of the Col du Tourmalet.

Isaac del Toro led Pogačar up the hors categorie climb before the defending champion attacked and rode solo for 40km to win the stage from Pau to Gavarnie-Gèdre.

“It’s a really incredible victory, one of the sweetest,” Pogačar said after the stage, adding that UAE Team Emirates XRG hatched the plan for stage 6 yesterday.

“Today I woke up at seven in the morning and my mind was going crazy. I was really, really excited for today. All the guys were really hyped so I knew it would be a good day.”

“We just committed. We were going like there was nothing to lose,” he said.

Pogačar was the first rider to cross the summit of Col du Tourmalet. As a result, he won the Souvenir Jacques Goddet award, which is given to the rider who reaches the top of the climb and comes with a €5,000 prize.

The Slovenian’s ride on the Tourmalet also won him 20 points in the King of the Mountains competition, which he now leads. 

Jonas Vingegaard chased Pogačar, but he could not catch the Slovenian. He finished second on the stage, 2 minutes and 40 seconds behind Pogačar.

A group containing Remco Evenepoel, Florian Lipowitz and Paul Seixas chased the two favourites and tried to limit their losses. 

Pogačar’s performance also saw him ride back into the yellow jersey, after Torstein Træen took the leader’s jersey from Pogačar on stage 4.

Pogačar’s ride today on the first mountain stage of the race saw the Slovenian take back the 7 minutes 53 seconds lead Træen had at the start of the day.

Træen crashed on the descent of the Col du Tourmalet, which left him isolated for the closing section of the stage, where he was attended to by the race doctor. 

Pogačar’s first stage win of the 2026 Tour de France saw him move up into fifth on the list of all-time stage winners. His second win takes his total to 23 stage victories, only two away from André Leducq’s total of 25. 

Earlier in the stage, race commissaires reprimanded Lotto-Intermarché’s Huub Artz for his hand position. This prompted the Dutchman to drop back to the peloton from a three-man breakaway with Mads Pedersen and Victor Campenaerts.