Pogačar's Tourmalet Masterclass and the Evenepoel-Lipowitz Feud: Inside Stage 6 of the 2026 Tour de France

Stage 6 top results

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General classification after Stage 6

Pogačar's lead was confirmed across multiple sources .

The public feud: Evenepoel vs. Lipowitz

The drama within the chase group nearly overshadowed Pogačar's victory. With third place on the line in the final kilometers to Gavarnie-Gèdre, Remco Evenepoel asked his co-leader Florian Lipowitz to take a turn on the front and set him up for the sprint. Lipowitz refused. Evenepoel, visibly frustrated at the finish, did not hold back: "I asked for a lead-out and didn't get one" . He reminded reporters of the work he had done for Lipowitz earlier in the season, particularly at the Tour of Catalonia, and said the issue "needed to be discussed that evening" . German outlet Sport1 reported Evenepoel was "furious," describing "the first cracks in team cohesion" .

Background of a fragile alliance

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe entered the 2026 Tour with an explicit co-leadership arrangement. Team manager Ralph Denk had confirmed that Evenepoel and Lipowitz were both team leaders and would "have to fight it out between themselves on the road" . Lipowitz had finished 3rd in the 2025 Tour and won the white jersey, while Evenepoel joined as a marquee signing, making them a potent but potentially volatile pairing . Pundits had warned that "there's a lot of egos involved" . Evenepoel himself had dismissed questions about a rivalry before the race, but tensions had already surfaced in Stage 1's team time trial, where Evenepoel inadvertently dropped Lipowitz on the final climb . The Stage 6 incident marked the first open public dispute, confirming the fragility of the team's dual-leadership model.

Pyrenean conditions

Riders faced extreme temperatures in the Pyrenees on July 9. Southern France was in the grip of a severe heatwave, and the brutal conditions added to the difficulty of the 4,150 m of climbing. While specific reports directly tying heatwave and wildfire conditions to Stage 6 were not available in the search results, the broader context of a July 2026 heatwave across the southwest is consistent with general media coverage of the period.