Early Wednesday afternoon, the peloton set off from Pau for the first mountain stage of the 110th edition of the Tour de France. Team Jumbo-Visma was very alert after the fast start. The Dutch squad was in the breakaway with Wout van Aert, Tiesj Benoot and Christophe Laporte, and some classification riders. This increased the pressure on some of the other teams in the peloton.

On the first two climbs of the day, the GC riders kept quiet, but on the Col de Marie Blanque, the race exploded when Hindley broke away. In the thinned peloton behind, Vingegaard attacked after good work from Sepp Kuss.

"I saw that Tadej Pogacar did not react immediately. Jonas immediately had a gap, and then he had to keep going”, the American said. "I did everything I could. When I reached the top of the Marie Blanque in Pogacar's wheel, the difference with Jonas was already huge. Jonas was flying today. It was an excellent stage for the whole team.”

Vingegaard eventually finished fifth, half a minute behind winner Hindley and more than a minute ahead of most GC riders. "My legs were perfect on the last climb. I wanted to test Pogacar. We discussed this scenario before, but I did not expect it to go so well. We wanted to make the race hard today. I think we succeeded. The team rode well today”, Vingegaard beamed.

"I'm happy I could take so much time from some of the GC riders. Hindley was very strong today. We should not underestimate him”, the Danish rider concluded.

Sports director Grischa Niermann agreed: "The Tour is only five days old and far from over. Pogacar has looked very strong in the last few days, and we should not write him off just yet. But, of course, we are delighted with the situation we have created today.”