{"id":683789,"date":"2026-07-10T06:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/683789\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T06:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:52:13","slug":"tadej-pogacar-demolishes-rivals-on-the-tourmalet-to-take-ominous-tour-de-france-lead-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/683789\/","title":{"rendered":"Tadej Pogacar demolishes rivals on the Tourmalet to take ominous Tour de France lead \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tadej Pogacar<\/a> powered alone to the summit of the mighty Col du Tourmalet, deep in the Hautes-Pyr\u00e9n\u00e9es, and rode on to victory on stage six to Gavarnie-G\u00e8dre, taking an emphatic overall lead in the 2026 Tour de France<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the shadow of the towering cliffs of the Cirque de Gavarnie, and under the gaze of French president Emmanuel Macron, Pogacar was imperious. Only his perennial rival, Jonas Vingegaard, was able to give chase and by the end of the stage, even his resistance seemed futile.<\/p>\n

All the labels that have been applied to Pogacar \u2013 ogre, monster, beast \u2013 were appropriate as he embarked on another of his trademark solo raids, crushing the morale of his opponents yet again.<\/p>\n

A lead that had been under half a minute at La Mongie ski station became the best part of three minutes by the time he reached Gavarnie-G\u00e8dre. An increasingly listless Vingegaard did not even bother sprinting for the finish line, as he ceded 2.38 to his old rival.<\/p>\n

After the stage, Pogacar was compared to Michael Jordan, although the rider himself cited Usain Bolt. \u201cSeeing him being so dominant was crazy,\u201d he said, \u201cand in tennis, Novak Djokovic. He\u2019s on another level.\u201d<\/p>\n

It will take a lot to stop Pogacar claiming his fifth overall win in Paris on July 26th. He is now the fifth-most prolific stage winner in the history of the Tour, winning 23 including 11 in the Pyrenees.<\/p>\n

If Eddy Merckx was the Cannibal, then with more stage wins likely to come, Pogacar\u2019s new sobriquet could be the Glutton.<\/p>\n

Despite being pursed by Vingegaard and, further behind, a group of eight containing Olympic time trial champion Remco Evenepoel and French favourite Paul Seixas, his lead on the descent from the Tourmalet grew, kilometre by kilometre. With two stages won already, and one gifted to team-mate, Isaac del Toro, he is already in full control.<\/p>\n

The pace set by Pogacar\u2019s UAE Team Emirates XRG team at the foot of the Tourmalet was infernal. The 17 kilometres of climbing provided a platform for Pogacar and a graveyard for others, including then-race leader Torsten Traeen whose second day in yellow turned into a nightmare.<\/p>\n

By the midway point of the interminable climb the peloton had been reduced to just 16 riders. Among those unable to keep pace was Thymen Arensman, leading the Netcompany Ineos team in the absence of the injured Oscar Onley, and Tom Pidcock of Pinarello Q36.5.<\/p>\n

Five kilometres from the summit of the Tourmalet, as the lead group entered La Mongie, Pogacar and del Toro moved ahead, with the four-time winner then pushing on alone.<\/p>\n

If Vingegaard\u2019s pursuit initially limited the damage on the climb\u2019s final ramps, Pogacar\u2019s attack put the hype around Seixas into perspective. The rider who had traded blows with the Slovenian in April had no response and slipped further behind. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tadej Pogacar powered alone to the summit of the mighty Col du Tourmalet, deep in the Hautes-Pyr\u00e9n\u00e9es, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,8782,6549,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-683789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}