The Inter-Red Bull Teammate Drama Is The Best Story Of The Tour de France So Far

BERGERAC, France — The 2026 Tour de France is thus far mostly bereft of big narratives and interesting surprises.

The race for the first two podium places seems mostly over.

There is no off-bike story that's captivated the race or raised larger-order implications https://defector.com/an-anatomy-of-the-doping-story-that-has-the-tour-de-france-press-room-buzzing">like the saga of Ineos soigneur David Rozman's doping connections.

Torstein Træn https://defector.com/meet-torstein-traeen-the-stoic-norwegian-survivor-who-briefly-lit-up-the-tour-de-france">delighted the race and threatened to upend the back half of the top-10 fight, only to crack on the Tourmalet before https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/torstein-tr-en-tour-france-223236015.html">falling on the descent and breaking a quartet of his ribs.

However, there is still one major piece of intrigue.

What the hell is going on with the public spat between the two biggest stars at Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe?

The drama kicked off after Stage 6, in which Tadej Pogacar smashed the Tourmalet climbing and descending records en route to a dominant solo stage win and the likely permanent seizure of the yellow jersey.

Behind him, Jonas Vingegaard rode in solo for second, and a six-rider pack of contenders for the final podium spot sprinted it out.

The finishing sextet featured two pairs of teammates, the stronger of which is Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz, who finished fourth and sixth on the day, respectively.

They came into the Tour as co-leaders, a bad idea in general and a particularly nonsensical one for this pair.