OFFICIAL Stage 6 Results: Arvid de Kleijn ABANDONS!
Laurens De Jong
Hello, Tour de France Gamers!
STAGE Grade: A-
I rate today’s stage an A-. Col d’Aspin, Col du Tourmalet, that’s already five stars. But today’s stage finished in the most breathtaking scenery of any grand tour stage, ever. The Circque de Gavarnie, look it up if you haven’t seen it. I’ll give five stars for GC implications, even though it was only one rider whose result stood out; but his stood out at a five-star rating. There were no tactics, no sprint, and no surprises. But because I’m doing this subjectively, I handed out two stars for each category, anyway.
Route: 5/5 GC: 5/5 Tactics: 2/5 Sprint: 2/5 Surprises: 2/5
The rainbow jersey, worn by the world champion, is finished. We won’t see it again for the remainder of the 2026 Tour de France. Tadej Pogačar, who wore it today, will be in the yellow jersey between now and July 26.
Cycling is suffering. Behind Pogačar, everyone was suffering. Jonas Vingegaard suffered more than I have ever seen him suffer before. Cian Uijtdebroeks was suffering so much he had to abandon. I even saw Isaac del Toro suffer, climbing le Tourmalet. Pogačar never seemed to suffer. Riding up the Tourmalet in heartrate zone 2 (“light intensity and highly sustainable”). I honestly did not see him suffer.
If cycling is suffering, and Pogačar wasn’t suffering, was he even cycling? Compared to everyone else, he seemed to be competing in a different sport. He took almost three minutes on Jonas Vingegaard. Vingegaard had hoped to lose a minute.
Crossing the finish line, Pogačar was sprinting the entire way. Vingegaard was freewheeling, his head down, defeated.
The organizers thought they had tried everything to keep the Tour de France competitive until week three. Put the finish line after the Tourmalet, not on top. Surely, that will keep it close. No, instead, we’re not even a week in and Pogačar has decided the event. The only way to keep it close is to get rid of all the mountains. Pogačar can win on the flats, too, but at least he’ll have to fight off all the sprinters’ teams.
That’s my suggestion, but we can also just celebrate the otherworldly result we saw today.
Speaking of sprinters’ teams! I spoke yesterday of the need to have teammates once across the Tourmalet. Team Visma | Lease-a-Bike had the same idea, and they sent Victor Campenaerts ahead with plans to add another in the breakaway. The satellite-rider plan. I’ve never been a fan, but it has worked. The idea being: the breakaway and the satellite riders start the climb to Tourmalet with a big time advantage. By the time they get to the top, the GC riders have caught up. Hey pronto: teammates.
But that didn’t work out for Visma today. Mads Pedersen and Huub Artz immediately followed — they wanted to take as many points in the intermediate sprint as possible. The satellite-rider plan had no chance today.
I’ve looked through the results and other than the ridiculous winning margin I see nothing worth noting. Egan Bernal made a big move, that tells us that he’s not here to help Thymen Arensman — they’re each on their own. A lot of UAE Team Emirates – XRG riders have gone up in the general classification. Because Pogačar has so much energy, it spills over onto his teammates.
Torstein Træen had hoped to keep the yellow jersey, but obviously wasn’t going to resist the violence unleashed by Pogačar. On the descent from the Tourmalet, exhausted, he made a mistake: tapped the wheel of his teammate ahead of him, went down, broke a rib. Somehow he finished, almost thirty minutes behind. He won’t be starting on Friday.
On that same descent the riders came through the village of Barèges. I spotted an assortment of skilift parts piled up in the parking lot. They’re replacing the 1997 chairlift called Tournaboup with modern 10-person gondolas. The choice for gondolas was because “this lift will make it easier to take bicycles up,” so there you have it, cycling and skilifts do go together.
Damiano Caruso finished 46th today. He was in a grupetto of four, with Mattia Cattaneo, Tim Wellens, and Ion Izagirre. Nothing remarkable about that, but they passed Træen and Anders Halland Johannessen on the way up to Gavarnie-Gèdre. Therefore, Caruso was on TV for a minute. Not every day we see a grupetto during a climb, but it worked out today.
They were being chased by a group of young kids, asking for bidons. Caruso, for one, was feeling generous and handed them his. A nice gesture, I’m sure they do it all the time in the grupettos.
Caruso was picked by Team Adam, and our focus rider of the day.
Watch the final kilometer HERE.
Watch the FloBikes highlights HERE.
Watch NBC Sports’ Extended highlights HERE.
Read the TNT Sports report HERE.
Arvid de Kleijn's abandon is bad news for Team Cameron. They had selected him. His poor form in the 2026 Tour de France was due to a curious case: he had not been on a time trial bike in over a year until stage 1 of the Tour. The unusual fit on that bike caused tears in several of his muscles. He was in pain all week, we saw the eleven minutes he lost yesterday. He had to abandon. Zero points for Team Cameron.
Spoiler alert: there were no changes in the standings today.
The top teams have different riders, but they score very similar points. Team Ansel won today’s stage, thanks to Matthias Skjelmose and Adam Yates; Team Tadej countered with Lenny Martinez — six points short means second place. Team Ansel had most points from the stage, most points overall, and most riders in the Top-25 (eleven); Team Tadej had most points from classifications.
Team Josh took third, not far behind. Then Team Hugo in fourth. Team Charles took fifth just ahead of Team Caleb and Team Matthew, who shared sixth place.
Team Oliver were eight, Team Amalia ninth, Team Wesley tenth.
Team Grace in eleventh and Team Cameron in twelfth missed the boat today.
Stage 7 will be a bunch sprint, no doubt about that. They race to Bordeaux, the 82nd time that’s happened. Only Paris has been visited by the Tour more often than Bordeaux. And it’s where as often as not a Dutchman wins the stage. Ten of the last twenty were won by Dutchmen — so why look past Olav Kooij for tomorrow’s prediction?
The computer forecast sees a three-way tie: Kooij, Tim Merlier, Jasper Philipsen. Merlier is the fastest man in the peloton. I’ve not seen Philipsen in great form, so I don’t believe that. I still think Biniam Girmay has the best lead-out train. Choices, choices.
The roadbook shows us that almost immediately after the 5-kilometer point, there’s a series of tight turns to get across the bridge over the Garonne. I’m going to believe everyone will get through there safely, and then it’s four kilometers essentially straight, with a tailwind. This will come down to who has the best lead-out. That’s Girmay, but if Kooij can do what he thinks he does best, pick someone else’s lead-out, then he wins again. I’m picking Girmay, though. He’s due.
Standings after stage 6:
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
WAS |
MOVES |
|
1 |
Team Tadej* |
1436 |
1 |
0 |
|
2 |
Team Ansel* |
1414 |
2 |
0 |
|
3 |
Team Josh* |
1373 |
3 |
0 |
|
4 |
Team Hugo* |
1327 |
4 |
0 |
|
5 |
Team Caleb* |
1186 |
5 |
0 |
|
6 |
Team Charles* |
1179 |
6 |
0 |
|
7 |
Team Matthew* |
1147 |
7 |
0 |
|
8 |
Team Amalia* |
1015 |
8 |
0 |
|
Team Oliver* |
1015 |
9 |
1 |
|
|
10 |
Team Wesley* |
805 |
10 |
0 |
|
11 |
Team Grace* |
558 |
11 |
0 |
|
12 |
Team Cameron* |
437 |
12 |
0 |
Standings after stage 6 (including dogs and adults):
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
WAS |
MOVES |
|
1 |
Team Amelia |
1446 |
2 |
1 |
|
2 |
Team Tadej* |
1436 |
1 |
-1 |
|
3 |
Team Ansel* |
1414 |
4 |
1 |
|
4 |
Team Kent |
1409 |
3 |
-1 |
|
5 |
Team Josh* |
1373 |
5 |
0 |
|
6 |
Team Kari |
1371 |
6 |
0 |
|
7 |
Team Jonwaine |
1338 |
11 |
4 |
|
8 |
Team Melanie |
1336 |
8 |
0 |
|
9 |
Team Hugo* |
1327 |
7 |
-2 |
|
10 |
Team Rob |
1307 |
10 |
0 |
|
11 |
Team Eric |
1298 |
9 |
-2 |
|
12 |
Team Jon |
1286 |
14 |
2 |
|
13 |
Team Craig |
1284 |
13 |
0 |
|
14 |
Team Kurt |
1260 |
12 |
-2 |
|
15 |
Team Julie |
1247 |
15 |
0 |
|
16 |
Team Laurens |
1222 |
16 |
0 |
|
17 |
Team Corsa |
1197 |
20 |
3 |
|
18 |
Team Caleb* |
1186 |
17 |
-1 |
|
19 |
Team Ed |
1181 |
19 |
0 |
|
20 |
Team Charles* |
1179 |
18 |
-2 |
|
21 |
Team Matthew* |
1147 |
21 |
0 |
|
22 |
Team Jonathan |
1146 |
22 |
0 |
|
23 |
Team Ellie |
1080 |
24 |
1 |
|
24 |
Team Grace |
1076 |
26 |
2 |
|
25 |
Team Ambrose |
1060 |
25 |
0 |
|
26 |
Team Kate |
1048 |
23 |
-3 |
|
27 |
Team Charlotte |
1044 |
27 |
0 |
|
28 |
Team Amalia* |
1015 |
28 |
0 |
|
Team Oliver* |
1015 |
30 |
2 |
|
|
30 |
Team Adam |
1008 |
29 |
-1 |
|
31 |
Team Cameron |
987 |
31 |
0 |
|
Team Erin |
987 |
32 |
1 |
|
|
33 |
Team Suzanne |
972 |
34 |
1 |
|
34 |
Team Furner |
961 |
33 |
-1 |
|
35 |
Team Allison |
912 |
36 |
1 |
|
36 |
Team Wesley |
908 |
35 |
-1 |
|
37 |
Team Lichterman |
895 |
37 |
0 |
|
38 |
Team Wesley* |
805 |
38 |
0 |
|
39 |
Team Izzy |
766 |
39 |
0 |
|
40 |
Team Senna# |
759 |
40 |
0 |
|
41 |
Team Valerie |
565 |
41 |
0 |
|
42 |
Team Grace* |
558 |
42 |
0 |
|
43 |
Team Cameron* |
437 |
43 |
0 |
|
44 |
Team Sam |
406 |
44 |
0 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 6:
|
Name |
STAGE RESULTS |
YELLOW JERSEY |
GREEN JERSEY |
POLKA DOT JERSEY |
WHITE JERSEY |
POINTS/CLASS |
TOTAL |
PREVIOUS |
CUM. TOTAL |
|
Team Amalia* |
158 |
38 |
3 |
9 |
14 |
66 |
224 |
791 |
1015 |
|
Team Ansel* |
222 |
51 |
11 |
10 |
15 |
89 |
311 |
1103 |
1414 |
|
Team Caleb* |
168 |
43 |
8 |
10 |
15 |
78 |
246 |
940 |
1186 |
|
Team Cameron* |
66 |
13 |
5 |
8 |
5 |
33 |
99 |
338 |
437 |
|
Team Charles* |
168 |
43 |
11 |
10 |
15 |
81 |
249 |
930 |
1179 |
|
Team Grace* |
85 |
19 |
3 |
9 |
9 |
42 |
127 |
431 |
558 |
|
Team Hugo* |
187 |
49 |
8 |
10 |
15 |
84 |
271 |
1056 |
1327 |
|
Team Josh* |
188 |
49 |
11 |
10 |
15 |
87 |
275 |
1098 |
1373 |
|
Team Matthew* |
168 |
43 |
8 |
10 |
15 |
78 |
246 |
901 |
1147 |
|
Team Oliver* |
163 |
38 |
11 |
9 |
11 |
71 |
234 |
781 |
1015 |
|
Team Tadej* |
212 |
52 |
11 |
13 |
15 |
93 |
305 |
1131 |
1436 |
|
Team Wesley* |
145 |
36 |
1 |
6 |
11 |
56 |
201 |
604 |
805 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 6 (including dogs and adults):
|
149 |
38 |
6 |
10 |
13 |
69 |
218 |
790 |
1008 |
|
|
Team Allison |
141 |
33 |
8 |
5 |
10 |
56 |
197 |
715 |
912 |
|
Team Amalia* |
158 |
38 |
3 |
9 |
14 |
66 |
224 |
791 |
1015 |
|
Team Ambrose |
148 |
39 |
11 |
10 |
15 |
77 |
225 |
835 |
1060 |
|
Team Amelia |
224 |
54 |
8 |
13 |
15 |
92 |
316 |
1130 |
1446 |
|
Team Ansel* |
222 |
51 |
11 |
10 |
15 |
89 |
311 |
1103 |
1414 |
|
Team Caleb* |
168 |
43 |
8 |
10 |
15 |
78 |
246 |
940 |
1186 |
|
Team Cameron |
152 |
35 |
8 |
13 |
10 |
68 |
220 |
767 |
987 |
|
Team Cameron* |
66 |
13 |
5 |
8 |
5 |
33 |
99 |
338 |
437 |
|
Team Charles* |
168 |
43 |
11 |
10 |
15 |
81 |
249 |
930 |
1179 |
|
Team Charlotte |
164 |
39 |
3 |
13 |
13 |
70 |
234 |
810 |
1044 |
|
Team Corsa |
192 |
49 |
11 |
10 |
15 |
87 |
279 |
918 |
1197 |
|
Team Craig |
198 |
49 |
11 |
10 |
15 |
87 |
285 |
999 |
1284 |
|
Team Ed |
177 |
43 |
11 |
10 |
15 |
81 |
258 |
923 |
1181 |
|
Team Ellie |
168 |
40 |
11 |
9 |
14 |
76 |
244 |
836 |
1080 |
|
Team Eric |
190 |
49 |
11 |
10 |
15 |
87 |
277 |
1021 |
1298 |
|
Team Erin |
167 |
34 |
4 |
13 |
12 |
65 |
232 |
755 |
987 |
|
Team Furner |
167 |
38 |
3 |
10 |
13 |
66 |
233 |
728 |
961 |
|
Team Grace |
170 |
40 |
11 |
9 |
14 |
76 |
246 |
830 |
1076 |
|
Team Grace* |
85 |
19 |
3 |
9 |
9 |
42 |
127 |
431 |
558 |
|
Team Hugo* |
187 |
49 |
8 |
10 |
15 |
84 |
271 |
1056 |
1327 |
|
Team Izzy |
125 |
27 |
8 |
9 |
12 |
58 |
183 |
583 |
766 |
|
Team Jon |
202 |
52 |
11 |
13 |
15 |
93 |
295 |
991 |
1286 |
|
Team Jonathan |
207 |
46 |
1 |
9 |
14 |
72 |
279 |
867 |
1146 |
|
Team Jonwaine |
245 |
54 |
1 |
13 |
15 |
85 |
330 |
1008 |
1338 |
|
Team Josh* |
188 |
49 |
11 |
10 |
15 |
87 |
275 |
1098 |
1373 |
|
Team Julie |
186 |
45 |
11 |
10 |
15 |
83 |
269 |
978 |
1247 |
|
Team Kari |
207 |
52 |
11 |
13 |
15 |
93 |
300 |
1071 |
1371 |
|
Team Kate |
142 |
36 |
11 |
9 |
11 |
69 |
211 |
837 |
1048 |
|
Team Kent |
207 |
52 |
11 |
13 |
15 |
93 |
300 |
1109 |
1409 |
|
Team Kurt |
175 |
44 |
11 |
13 |
15 |
85 |
260 |
1000 |
1260 |
|
Team Laurens |
197 |
51 |
3 |
10 |
15 |
81 |
278 |
944 |
1222 |
|
Team Lichterman |
138 |
29 |
11 |
13 |
10 |
65 |
203 |
692 |
895 |
|
Team Matthew* |
168 |
43 |
8 |
10 |
15 |
78 |
246 |
901 |
1147 |
|
Team Melanie |
195 |
49 |
11 |
10 |
15 |
87 |
282 |
1054 |
1336 |
|
Team Oliver* |
163 |
38 |
11 |
9 |
11 |
71 |
234 |
781 |
1015 |
|
Team Rob |
205 |
51 |
11 |
10 |
15 |
89 |
294 |
1013 |
1307 |
|
Team Sam |
57 |
15 |
1 |
6 |
6 |
30 |
87 |
319 |
406 |
|
Team Senna# |
125 |
26 |
8 |
9 |
11 |
56 |
181 |
578 |
759 |
|
Team Suzanne |
179 |
39 |
4 |
10 |
15 |
70 |
249 |
723 |
972 |
|
Team Tadej* |
212 |
52 |
11 |
13 |
15 |
93 |
305 |
1131 |
1436 |
|
Team Valerie |
65 |
19 |
8 |
11 |
9 |
49 |
114 |
451 |
565 |
|
Team Wesley |
133 |
28 |
8 |
9 |
11 |
58 |
191 |
717 |
908 |
|
Team Wesley* |
145 |
36 |
1 |
6 |
11 |
56 |
201 |
604 |
805 |
-Laurens.