Torstein Træen took the yellow jersey in Foix on Tuesday, and Tadej Pogačar lost the Tour de France lead after a stage that changed the race in one long move rather than a sprint to the line. Mads Pedersen won the stage for Lidl-Trek, Quinn Simmons was second, and Pogačar dropped to fourth on general classification, 7.53 behind Træen.
The shift matters because it came after UAE Team Emirates allowed a 34-strong breakaway to build a lead of more than 12 minutes on the road between Carcassonne and Foix. That opened the door for Træen, who now leads Sean Quinn by 28 seconds and gives Uno-X Mobility a yellow jersey few would have expected to see this deep into the race.
Pogačar had seen it coming. He said he started the day with a full headache in the heat and thought it was going to be a long one, but the team kept the effort controlled and split the work between Nils Politt, Florian Vermeersch and Tim Wellens. “We kept it cool, calm,” he said, adding that the team did not spend “a crazy amount of energy” while Lidl-Trek drove the break.
That calm came with a cost. Pogačar said losing the jersey meant “one hour and a half less obligations” after the stage, and he asked reporters to keep their distance while he warmed down. He also made clear that he still wants the lead back, even as he admitted Uno-X Mobility may be able to hold it for a while. “They’re really good,” he said. “Now it’s quite a big gap, so we will see. We will fight, but I think they can keep the yellow jersey in the team for a long time.”
There is a reason that warning carries weight. Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates had already come in for criticism from some members of the media, including Thomas Voeckler, for targeting multiple stage wins and squeezing the breakaway. This time, the break got away and the standings paid the price. The next stretch includes another Pyrenean stage before the Alps arrive later, which gives Træen and Uno-X one more day at least to try to protect the most exposed jersey in cycling.
Pogačar is still close enough to make this far from settled, but the day moved the race into a new phase. The yellow jersey is no longer on the strongest rider on paper; it is on the rider who survived the breakaway day best, and the question now is whether Træen can keep it long enough to reach the mountains that will decide whether this change was temporary or decisive.
