00:01A new Dauphiné starts today as we hit the mountains.
00:04Remko Evenepoel will be defending his yellow and blue jersey on a tough summit finish to Conbleu,
00:10where he'll be keeping a close eye on Tadej Pigaccia and Jonas Wingegaard.
00:14I think today will be a good one for us to see how other teams will attack the weekend.
00:18So for us it's more trying to have control over the start.
00:22If there's a nice group that can go, they can go.
00:25And then it's going to be wait and see until the first steep kicker with about 50k to go,
00:31where the real final will start. So yeah, it's going to be an interesting one.
00:35Pigaccia in particular will be looking to hit back after he lost ground in the time trial.
00:40The Slovenian starts today 22 seconds down on Vingegaard and 38 behind Evenepoel.
00:46Nice stage today. Pretty hard. Nothing crazy throughout the day,
00:52but I think in the end a lot of legs will be tired and we will see some action probably for the GC today.
00:58From you? Is that the first day when you start catching back some time on your opponents?
01:02Well, there's quite a few time to catch back, so maybe we can try to start today with something.
01:10It'll take something special to keep up with the big three,
01:13so anyone eyeing up the stage win will have to anticipate or try to get into the breakaway.
01:20We know Pigaccia. I think he's going to want a win today and claw back some time.
01:26So a rider like me needs at least two or two and a half minutes at the foot of Domoncy to have any chance.
01:32It's not mission impossible, but a lot of things will have to go our way.
01:39I'm really curious to see how the top three guys are going to ride today and to see if I have good legs.
01:45Well, the final's quite punchy. It could be good for you.
01:49Yeah, I think if I'm on good form, it's a final that could suit me.
01:55Well, Stage 6 is a fairly short one, not even 130km, but it features over 2,500m of climbing.
02:07With around 40km to go, they will reach the Côte de Montsaxonnet, 5.4km at 8.7%,
02:13which will already start to thin out the group of favourites.
02:16It's then two climbs for the price of one in the final.
02:19First, the Côte de Domoncy, which famously hosted the World Championships in 1980,
02:23and will do so again in 2027,
02:26and then the Côte de la Cree up to the finish line in Conbleu.
02:29It is a big day for the GC contenders.
02:37There was a very fast start, with the riders covering more than 46km in the first hour.
02:42A strong breakaway formed with eight riders,
02:45Leonard, Armiray, Baudin, Van der Poel, Lechnersund, Bardet, Thierry and Turgis,
02:51but Paul Orselam missed out and would potentially lose his polka dot jersey.
02:55Their maximum gap was around two minutes, but the peloton had decided to keep them close,
03:00with UAE Team Emirates XRG and Sudal Quickstep on the front for Pogacar and Evanapool.
03:06They soon entered the last 50km, and with the Côte de Montsaxonaire looming,
03:12Visma Lisebeik decided to take control.
03:15The Dutch squad, putting several riders on the front of the bunch,
03:18are looking to test their rivals on this steep climb.
03:21A line of yellow shirts leading the peloton and starting to do some serious damage.
03:27Lots of riders going backwards, including teammates of Pogacar and Evanapool,
03:31and they soon started catching the remains of the breakaway.
03:34Roman Bardet realising that this wasn't the day to go for glory.
03:38Van der Poel was also dropped, before he could take any points towards that green jersey.
03:49Florian Lipovic then tried to sneak away from the GC group,
03:53hoping the others would be too busy watching each other to follow him,
03:56but they kept the German within around 10 seconds.
04:06Bourdain, Lennard and Armouret were the last three survivors from the breakaway,
04:10and a brief lull in the peloton allowed them to increase their lead before the summit.
04:15Bourdain and Lennard dropping Armouret and reaching the top with a minute in hand.
04:20The GC group only contained about 10 riders at this point,
04:28with UAE back in control, but plenty of others would catch up on the descent.
04:33The big three safely in there, with the likes of Jorgensen, Dunbar and Sexass.
04:41The two leaders approaching the final climb to Comblu with just over a minute in hand,
04:46but it was going to be hard work holding off the big guns.
04:50Bourdain soon went solo.
04:52The local rider, who was born in Alberville, dropping the Canadian youngster Lennard.
04:57UAE, meanwhile, upping the tempo for Pogacar on the steep early slopes of the Côte de Domoncy,
05:03and the pace was too much for Evenepaul.
05:09The race leader unable to follow as Pogacar made his move with Vingegaard on the wheel,
05:14but even the Dane was unable to stay with the Slovenian and he went solo with just over 7k remaining.
05:21Pogacar quickly led Vingegaard by 20 seconds and the Evenepaul group by 40.
05:26He soon caught and passed Buda as well, the world champion now leading on the road and soaring away to victory.
05:37With Pogacar continuing to gain time, Evenepaul was dropped by his rivals for the podium, first Lipovic and then Jorgensen.
05:44Pogacar going under the flamme rouge with almost a minute on Vingegaard and set to recover the race lead.
05:52Everybody else are scrambling to limit their losses to the Slovenian superstar.
05:56He's won Strade Bianchi, he's been third in Milan or San Remo, he's won the Tour of Flanders, he's been on the podium of Roubaix,
06:08he's finished on the podium of Amstel Gold, he's won Fleche Wallonne, he's won Liège-Bastogne-Liège,
06:14he's already taken one stage of the Criterium du Dauphiné and this is about to be the second one.
06:20At the top of the Côte de la Cré, there are tears on the faces of the opposition, Pogacar punishes them.
06:31Two stage wins for the world champion.
06:40Well there were a few question marks surrounding Pogacar after what was, by his standards, a rather disappointing time trial.
06:46But this was an emphatic response from the world champion who put significant time into all of his rivals.
06:53It's his ninth win of the season and the 97th of his career. A clean sweep this weekend would take him to 100.
07:00When I attacked, it was an all-out effort and then I knew that it's still around 15 minutes after that Côte de la Cré,
07:11to the top, so I had to pace myself after the attack. And yeah, the feeling was there, the legs were turning and it was just in my favour to be in the front end and to gain time.
07:22But yeah, one minute is good and I'm super happy.
07:31Pogacar winning by one minute and one second from Vingegaard with Lipovic's third at 1.22.
07:36Jorgensen came in 20 seconds ahead of Evenepoel with Bud and Sixth from the breakaway.
07:47Pogacar now leads Vingegaard by 43 seconds overall with Lipovic's third at 54 seconds.
07:53Evenepoel slips to fourth and has Jorgensen breathing down his neck.
07:5618-year-old Sexas also impressing in eighth place.
08:01Well, van der Poel was no doubt hoping to pick up some points today at the intermediate sprint, but no luck for the Dutchman.
08:07And with his win, Pogacar has closed the gap at the top to just 15 points.
08:12We have a new king of the mountains. Today's most combative rider, Alex Boudin,
08:18who leads the classification by just a point from Pogacar and the overnight leader, Paul Orselin.
08:22There is one jersey that the Slovenian can't win, white, and it's now on the shoulders of Florian Lipovic.
08:29He leads Evenepoel by 28 seconds.
08:32Well, today was actually fairly gentle compared to what awaits us in tomorrow's Queen stage.
08:37Three hook-category climbs, nearly 5,000 metres of elevation gain and another summit finish.
08:43Don't miss it. Join us again on Saturday and thanks for watching.
08:52To be continued...
