Pogačar lost the yellow jersey to van der Poel by one second after tactical maneuvers from Visma-Lease a Bike. Pogačar's defensive race style led him to also lose the green points jersey to Milan and the polka-dot jersey to teammate Wellens. He will compete in stage 7 wearing the world champion's rainbow jersey. The ongoing rivalry between Pogačar and Vingegaard, and the team rivalry between UAE and Visma, is expected to shape the narrative of this year's Tour.
Pogačar later explained that he was so close to keeping the yellow jersey due to an acceleration by Visma-Lease a Bike in the final part of the stage. They perhaps accelerated to keep Pogačar in yellow and busy with post-race obligations, and so oblige UAE to control the race on stage 7 and perhaps beyond.
The Pogačar-Vingegaard rivalry and the UAE-Visma rivalry have been going on ever since Pogačar snatched his first Tour victory in the Planches des Belles Filles time trial in 2020. Pogačar and Vingegaard have fought for the last four editions of the Tour as part of an often tense, if respectful, rivalry.
"Visma tried to do, I don't know what... They went hard, so we just followed them," Pogačar said, slightly irritated by Vimsa's race tactics.
"Maybe they had info that Mathieu van der Poel was suffering and losing time up front. Perhaps Visma wanted to give me the yellow jersey today, but Mathieu has it by one second, so chapeau to him. It was a superb ride from him today."
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