Neilson Powless was yet again within touching distance of the Tour de France leader’s jersey in Longwy, but just as on stage 5 on the cobbles to Arenberg, his dream was snatched away at the finish.
On Wednesday, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) did enough in the chase group to stop the 25-year-old from becoming the first American in yellow for 16 years. This time Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) spoiled EF Education-EasyPost’s celebrations by claiming the stage winner’s time bonus.
Powless started the stage just six seconds ahead of Pogačar and 13 behind the overnight leader Van Aert. At the finish, with Van Aert dropped after his day-long attack and closest GC challenger Edvald Boasson Hagen (TotalEnergies) also struggling, Powless only had to stay with Pogačar and hope the Slovenian didn’t win the stage and take the ten-second time bonus.
Pogačar, however, isn’t labelled the new Eddy Merckx for nothing, and he wanted the win and the yellow jersey before the Tour de France heads into the mountains for the first time at La Planches des Belles Filles on Friday. He sprinted to victory, beating Michael Matthews, David Gaudu and Tom Pidcock.
Powless managed to finish 14th, last of a select group of riders fighting for Pogačar’s slipstream. That cruelly left him just four seconds from the yellow jersey.
“We did everything we could, chapeau to Tadej. I just ran out of legs in the end,” Powless said, leaning over his handlebars beyond the finish line, fatigued, disappointed but also proud of his and EF Education-EasyPost’s performance.
“He’ll probably keep it until Paris now. The Tour is long, but he’s most likely the strongest guy in the race and showed that today. Unfortunately, I was just a few seconds short of yellow.”
While on Wednesday Powless raced for the stage victory and went close to yellow, during stage 6, the leader’s jersey was his and the team’s only goal.
“That’s all we were thinking about,” he said. “We knew it was going to be tough to take the jersey but the team fully committed. I’m fully proud of them and hopefully we can continue to have a good Tour, even if yellow might be out of reach for now. It was good to give it a try.
“I hadn’t thought anything negative about not doing it until he threw his hands up in the air. I knew I wasn’t going to contest the sprint, but I thought maybe someone could still beat him in the sprint from the big group.”
Powless accepted that his yellow jersey dreams are tantalisingly out of reach, with Pogačar likely to extend his lead on Friday’s finish atop La Planches des Belles Filles. He plans to rest up in the hope of targeting a stage victory from a breakaway later in the tour de France.
“I need to see how my body responds now. I was a bit tired after the effort on the cobbles, but we’ll see how the rest of the race goes. I’m going to keep racing and keep trying.”
