After six days of racing in the Tour de France, champion Tadej Pogachar proved to be a strong overall contender in the opening time trial, the Paris-Roubaix cobbles, and Thursday's hilly stage 6 in the southern Ardennes.

The Slovenian built a 4-second lead over EF Education-Easy Post second-place finisher Nielson Powles while finishing 27 seconds ahead of 2021 second-place finisher Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) at the race's first summit finish Super Planche de Belle Fille.

After his victory in Longwy, near the Belgian-Luxembourg border, Pogachar said he just went with the flow in the hilly finish at the end of the longest day of the Tour. In other words, rather than wait to take the yellow jersey at the Super Planche, the scene of his famous upset victory at the Tour two years ago, he let it flow.

"I wait for Planche," he said. I just let it flow. Today the team trusted me. It was a good opportunity and I'm really happy to win. But for sure, I didn't expect this before the start."

"So far, the first week, the first six days, have been very good for us.

"And tomorrow we enter the mountainous part of this year's Tour, the most uphill part. I think we're in a good position to defend the yellow jersey for the next few days."

The 23-year-old was as laid-back as ever at the press conference for his seventh Tour win and 17th in three years.

The Jumbo-Visma team of Primoš Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard, their main rivals in this year's Tour, recovered from a tough day on the cobbles on Wednesday to send race leader Wout Van Aert into the break for the day. In doing so, the other racers were able to rest relative to the Belgian yellow jersey holder instead of working for him.

Pogachar, who was 2:27 behind Roglic following his rival's disastrous loss in Arenberg, acknowledged what his team was trying to do, but said the move was ultimately controllable.

"I think I know what they wanted to do," he said. If Van Aat wanted to win the stage today, I think he needed to pull away from the peloton."

"But in the end, I think it was very difficult to get into the breakaway group, and there were only three [Quinn Simmons and Jakob Fuglsang-editor]. I don't think it was a perfect scenario for them. I think the perfect scenario would be if there were 10 people. But we were able to control it within the group."

Now, Pogachar faces a new test on Friday, at least in this year's Tour. The Super Planche is the race's first big uphill test, and even with even tougher climbs ahead, Pogachar is expected to maintain his dominance in the Vosges mountains.

"Tomorrow is Super Planche, a really important stage, so I want to be at the front tomorrow and go for the stage win," Pogachar said.

"I really like the climbs. I have very good memories. My girlfriend is at the top and I can't wait to go."

"We have a strong team. If we can't control the breakaway group to the finish, it won't be a disaster if we can't go for the stage.