After losing 81 seconds in Friday's Echelon stage, Tadej Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) promised to return to the fray on Saturday in the Tour de France Pyrenees, and the young Slovenian lived up to his promise.

The Slovenian was the only one clear of the overall contenders in Peyresourde, and his shadowboxing with the other leading riders effectively nullified each other's moves.

The first attack was sealed by Primoš Roglič (Jumbo Visma), who was quickly flanked by Nairo Quintana (Arkea Samsic). However, after Roglič rallied and the leading players regrouped, a second attack by Pogačar took place.

At one point, Pogačar was within a minute of the GC group, and at one point it seemed that Roglič's seemingly ambivalent attitude toward winning the yellow would lead another Slovenian to the lead, as he did on the podium of last year's Vuelta a España.

Various pulls by other GC contenders, including Quintana, Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale), and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis Solutions Credit), would cut into Pogachar's lead, with Mikel Landa (Bahrain McLaren) and A counterattack by Richie Porte (Trek Segafredo) did far less damage than expected.

To the contrary, the white-clad Pogachar was still 40 seconds ahead of the main group of contenders for the win after crossing the finish line, after running up the summit of the stage's final first class mountain and down a fast and not too difficult descent.

Pogachar, who was caught in a crash in yesterday's mountain stage finale and forced into a second group behind the main group, was able to take advantage of his rivals' hesitation this time. Of all the top riders who appeared on the first day of the Tour in the Pyrenees, Pogachar, whose first Grand Tour was last year's Vuelta, clearly benefited the most and impressed the most.

"I could see the other riders looking at each other and we were all on the limit," he said. I had a chance to attack, so I went full throttle for the last five kilometers." [On the downhills, I went down as deep as I could and at the end I had a 40-second advantage. Tomorrow will be difficult too, so I want to take it one day at a time and figure out how to fight each stage."

Pogachar also closed the gap to Best Young Rider award winner Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), who led until last week, to 35 seconds. But whether wearing white in Paris is the limit of his ambitions remains to be seen.