Tour de France: Pogačar takes over race lead with seventh career stage victory

Last year Tadej Pogačar grabbed yellow on Stage 8 of the Tour de France, a stage win already in his pocket. On Thursday’s sixth stage of the 109th edition, the two-time champion seized the maillot jaune with the seventh stage triumph of his career. On his last day in the race lead, Wout Van Aert did it in style, going out in the day’s three-man breakaway. Michael Woods was top Canadian, 20th on an uphill finish.

You can watch the 2022 Tour de France at FloBikes.

The Course

On Thursday’s longest stage of the 109th edition the first non-Cat. 4 climbs arrived. The important climbs–both categorized and non categorized–came in the final 20 km of 219 km. There were several, with Cat. 3 Côte de Pulventeux the most daunting at 800 metres of 10.8 percent. The ascent to the finish line in Longwy was 1.6 km of 6 percent.

Hello from Belgium!

We are in Binche for the start of the longest #TDF2022 stage, a 220km one taking the riders to Longwy over a hilly parcours that the breakaway an the attackers will just love. pic.twitter.com/P0t4UsAZ4C

— Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team (@qst_alphavinyl) July 7, 2022

The action was frenetic right from the start in Binche, Belgium. There were breakaways, echelons, splits, and lots of work from Wout Van Aert. By the time the dust had settled, Belgium and the first Cat. 3 were in the rearview mirror, 100 km were completed, and Van Aert was in a breakaway trio with Jakob Fuglsang and Quinn Simmons.

It does seem a bit weird that @WoutvanAert is in the break but I don’t think it’s just bravado. With him up the road he can now rest his entire team after a brutal day yesterday ahead of La Planche tomorrow.. it’s subversively smart with a romanticised veneer. #TDF2022 @eurosport

— Matt Stephens (@RealStephens) July 7, 2022

Alpecin-Fenix, whose Mathieu van der Poel was having a tough day at the back of the peloton, powered the field. At the day’s intermediate sprint in Carignan. Van Aert padded his points competition lead over Fabio Jakobsen. EF Education-Easypost put in some work.

Fuglsang returned to the peloton before the lumpy final 63 km. It seemed unlikely that the remaining duo would make Cat. 4 Côte de Montigny-sur-Chiers in the lead. Van Aert went solo with 30 km to go.

Ineos, Bora and Groupama-FDJ drove the peloton as Van Aert approached the Cat. 4. The Belgian tipped over the top with a wee gap.

Côte de…