Tour de France 2023 Stage 6 recap: Jonas Vingegaard in yellow despite losing out to winner Tadej Pogacar

Our man Matt Stephens spoke to a downcast Tadej Pogacar this morning and he seemed pretty flat and despondent - even if he's far from thrown in the towel. Asked if he could put his finger on what went wrong yesterday, this is what he said:

"Maybe small details – a little bit of everything. The shape is here but I think the next days I can be even better. Jonas was super strong yesterday. I think he would have made a gap anyway. We’ll see the next days if I can respond. I’m good. We all expected Jonas to be so good. And we didn’t know how good I would be. So I hope I can get better in the next days. I come mentally and physically fresh to the Tour, so maybe after the rest day I can be even better."

TOP 10 ON GC GOING INTO STAGE 6

1. Jai Hindley
2. Jonas Vingegaard +47
3. Giulio Ciccone +1:03
4. Emanuel Buchmann +1:11
5. Adam Yates +1:34
6. Tadej Pogacar +1:40
7. Simon Yates +1:40
8. Mattias Skjelmose +1:56
9. Carlos Rodriguez +1:56
10. David Gaudu +1:56

Amid all the excitement of the Vingegaard-Pogacar showdown on the Marie Blanque it's easy to overlook - as Jumbo-Visma and UAE Team Emirates seemingly did during Stage 5 - that neither rider is in the yellow jersey. Indeed, that honour is being held by Australia's Jai Hindley, a former Giro d'Italia winner no less, who cause a huge upset yesterday with a sumptuous solo win in Laruns. That's some debut for the 27-year-old from Bora-Hansgrohe, who leads Vingegaard by 47 seconds in the standings.

The two-time Tour champion Tadej Pogacar was caught out by his big rival Jonas Vingegaard yesterday on the Col du Marie Blanque, the Slovenian eventually conceding just over a minute to the defending champion from Denmark.

Given his preparations for the Tour were hampered by that broken wrist in April, it's not the end of the world for Pogacar, who still has time to hit form in France. But the apparent ease with which Vingegaard left him for dust will have many thinking the Tour is already over. Can Pogi now turn things round on the Tourmalet in the second stage in the Pyrenees?