Tour de France Stage 6 Preview: Pidcock to follow in Pogacar in Thursday’s Tourmalet tips

Thursday’s Stage 6 of the 2026 Tour de France will be a full-on GC day as the yellow jersey contenders head over one of the race’s most iconic Pyrenean climbs (live from 11am BST on TNT Sports 1, highlights from 7pm on Channel 5).

Tadej Pogacar will be expected to at least put a big dent into Torstein Traeen’s lead on the 186.2km between Pau and Gavarnie-Gedre, if not downright rip the maillot jaune away from the Norwegian. My Tour de France Stage 6 predictions are below.

Tour de France Betting Odds

Pogacar is the obvious favourite to win a second stage of this year’s event, and a 23rd in his Tour career. He’s 4/11 to take the flag first, with no other rider shorter than 12/1.

Jonas Vingegaard and Isaac del Toro are both on that mark, with Paul Seixas and Valentin Paret-Peintre each 16/1.

Alex Baudin is a 25/1 shot, while Remco Evenepoel, Florian Lipowitz, Richard Carapaz and Egan Bernal are all 33/1.

Cycling Odds

Thursday afternoon’s action will be epic, but the first half of the race will be all appetiser.

There’s a Cat 4 1.9km ride up the Cote de Loucrup at an average of 7.1% to deal with, then the Cat 3 Cote de Mauvezin (3km at 6.8%) but they have nothing on what is to come.

At 106km comes the start of a 12km journey up the Cat 1 Col d’Aspin, with its average 6.5% gradient  The second half of the climb is an almost-constant slog of 7.5%-plus.

The biggie is the Col du Tourmalet, which provides true Tour de France iconography. It’s 17.2km up to the top at an average 7.3%, taking the riders over 2000 metres above sea level.

With four significant ramps beyond 9% and some shorter sections beyond 12%, it really is one of the most arduous journeys a cyclist can take.

We’re not done there either, as the descent from the Tourmalet leads into the climax up the Cat 2 Cote de Gavarnie-Gedre, a painstaking 18.7km which, at a lesser gradient of 3.7%, would probably not feel so bad were the riders coming off the back of the beast before it.

Tadej Pogacar @ 4/11

Not too much explanation here. He’s going to win the stage, and even at 4/11 it is worth covering. You don’t get a great deal of value backing perhaps the single greatest sportsperson on the planet today, but you know he’s rarely going to let you down.

Tom Pidcock to Finish in Top 10 @ 5/4

Betfred have a couple of specials for Stage 6, with one offering EVENS about a French rider making it into the top three on the day.

But the eye-catcher for me is this one of 5/4 for Britain’s Tom Pidcock to be one of the first 10 across the line.

The Pinarello-Q36.5 rider has spoken a lot about the brutality of the heat over the last couple of days, with mercury rising to record levels particularly since Monday.

Yet as long as he fuels and hydrates to requisite standards, I can well see him troubling the top 10.

He recorded 12 such finishes across his Grand Tour appearances in Italy and Spain in 2025, and invariably they came on the high-mountain stages.

Then there was that fifth-placed finish behind Michal Kwiatkowski up the Grand Colombier three years ago which proved his power up one of the biggest obstacles in the Tour de France.

The 5/4 here looks pretty good to the punter in me.