Tourmalet gamble backfires as Pogacar seizes the Tour’s suspense

The Tour de France organizers aimed for suspense until the end by staging a late high-mountain day with a long finish, but Tadej Pogačar exploited the Tourmalet sequence to launch a devastating attack, leaving a 2:38 GC gap by stage 6. Gouvenou conceded the stage design underestimated just how large the gaps could get, suggesting a summit finish might have preserved more tension.