German climber Lennard Kämna looked well set to claim a second career Tour de France victory as he raced into the final 2km of La Super Planche des Belles Filles, the strongest survivor from the breakaway holding a lead of 50 seconds on the chasing peloton.
However, the 25-year-old wouldn't raise his arms at the line as he did in Villard-de-Lans two years ago, with UAE Team Emirates charging to the summit behind. It was their team and race leader, Tadej Pogačar, who swept past with his Tour rival Jonas Vingegaard, ending Kämna's dream within 100 metres of the line.
In five previous visits to the Vosges mountain, only one breakaway rider has won a Tour de France stage on La Planche, and despite some pre-race predictions to the contrary, it was never the plan for UAE Team Emirates to let that happen again on Friday's stage.
Pogačar, who won the Tour outright with a stunning time trial ride there in 2020, called the climb "special" in his stage 6 winner's press conference, noting that his family and girlfriend would be at the top this year. Going for another victory was always the plan.
"We made no secret that we wanted to ride for the stage. We were very open – we go for the stage," George Bennett said after Pogačar's second conquest of La Planche.
"Once Brandon [McNulty] was pulling he pulled so fast and then – I mean actually the breakaway was really strong. We had to pull that fast and I was thinking we would catch them halfway up, but they really did a super job."
After Ineos Grenadiers led the way into the climb, 1:30 down on the breakaway, UAE Team Emirates took over with McNulty and Bennett controlling the pace. The time gap slipped down to a minute before Polish climber Rafał Majka took over for the final 3km of the climb.
He delivered perhaps the most notable turn on the front, helping reduce the gap to 35 seconds before the flamme rouge, and then delivering a very enthusiastic handwave to his leader at 800 metres to go – "a mistake" he admitted later, having thought they were closer to the final bend.
The job, of course, wasn't yet done. Vingegaard's challenge was a strong one as he and Pogačar flew past Kämna in the dying metres, the Dane now the main challenger in the battle for the maillot jaune. On Thursday, Pogačar surged into yellow at an earlier point than he had in either of his previous two Tour wins. That's no problem, though, said Bennett.
"I don't know what we're going to do the next few days, but I don't think there's a problem with having the jersey, you know what I mean?" he said. "Every day in yellow is good and I think we survived the first week really, really well.
"We took a lot of criticism because we weren't all lined up with eight guys doing the old trains but actually Tadej always had guys with him. You also saw today how strong Jonas and Primož [Roglič, third on the stage] were so we're going to have a really, really big battle. And as a fan of cycling, I'm looking forward to it."
While the hierarchy at UAE Team Emirates has always been clear, Roglič's time loss on the cobbles has sorted Jumbo-Visma's. Ineos Grenadiers' took shape on La Planche as Geraint Thomas emerged as the strongest of the British squads' leaders.
Both teams hold multiple options to challenge Pogačar, even if Roglič lies almost three minutes down. Bennett said that he expects UAE's rivals to go "apeshit" in the battle for the Tour, though he and his teammates will be ready.
"Maybe you don't beat him one-on-one, but you can set up a lot of situations and [Jumbo] have an advantage of having two guys that are dangerous," he said. "That just means Tadej needs a super strong team around them which he has and the stronger you are the more everybody tries to flick you, so you need a stronger team.
"I expect – I don't know what stage – there'll be one day where it just goes apeshit. Primož goes in the break, Sepp [Kuss] just drops everybody, something like that. There's going to be a situation where we need to really be ready. So, we never underestimate them. We never get complacent and we expect war every day."
After the stage, UAE manager Joxean Fernández Matxin called his team "a super team" as he praised the riders who delivered Pogačar – "a super character for whom the impossible is possible" – to an eighth stage victory in just three years.
"It's a step-by-step, day-to- day," he said, repeating a phrase common in pro cycling stage racing parlance. "It's normal. It's a big name, big riders, super professional. Majka is one of the best climbers, Bennett the same, in my opinion. There's McNulty, Soler, Mikkel Bjerg... This is a super team."
The Spaniard, too, was wary of their rival's strength, singling out the obvious duo of Vingegaard and Roglič as the two to watch.
"Vingegaard in that moment was at 35 seconds, a good rival. Tadej passed him in the last metres. Maximum respect for Vingegaard – and for Roglič who yesterday tried in the last corner. He lost two minutes on the cobbles, but you don't remember – with Roglič it's Roglič."
