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Tadej Pogacar soloed to victory in the sixth stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné on Friday to reclaim the yellow jersey and put himself firmly in contention for overall victory.
With this 97th victory of his career, the Slovenian, who cruised in 1min 1sec ahead of Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard, becomes the active rider with the joint-most victories – on a par with French sprinter Arnaud Démare. Belgian Remco Evenepoel, who was leading the overall classification, finished fifth at 1min 50sec.
Pogacar now has a 43sec lead over Vingegaard, 54sec over Germany’s Florian Lipowitz, and 1min and 22sec over Evenepoel.
The Slovenian UAE Team Emirates XRG rider had already worn the yellow jersey before in this 77th edition of the Dauphiné after claiming victory in the first stage last weekend. “I’m super happy to be back in yellow. It was a very good day for us,” said Pogacar. “I’m getting very good answers from this Dauphiné. I wasn’t too stressed after the time-trial [on Wednesday] and the shape is here.”
On Friday, in the first of three mountain stages and competing under a baking sun, he took his revenge on Vingegaard on the Côte de Domancy, where the Dane had outclassed him in a time-trial at the 2023 Tour de France. The world champion put in an acceleration with 7km to go that left everyone in his wake. Only Vingegaard managed to hang on to his wheel for a few metres before settling back, unable to keep up with his rival.
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It was an important marker for Pogacar to put down to his leading Tour de France rivals before his title defence following the 26-year-old’s sub-par showing in Wednesday’s time-trial at the Dauphiné. Saturday’s queen stage is a mountainous 132km run from Grand-Aigueblanche to Valmeinier 1800.
