{"id":69682,"date":"2026-08-25T22:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T22:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/69682\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T22:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T22:16:09","slug":"decathlons-tactics-criticised-in-the-vuelta-gruppetto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/69682\/","title":{"rendered":"Decathlon’s tactics criticised in the Vuelta gruppetto"},"content":{"rendered":"

Decathlon CMA CGM<\/a> took control on Tuesday during the first mountain stage of the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a. The French team wanted to get their leader, Felix Gall<\/a>, as far ahead as possible, but ultimately fell victim to a counterattack by Tadej Pogacar<\/a>. The Slovenian won with a lead of several minutes over the other general classification contenders, while Gall did manage to gain an advantage over Richard Carapaz and Mattias Skjelmose.<\/p>\n

“This was the first test for the general classification. I’m really impressed by how strong the team was; it was awesome to see, and I think we can be proud of how we rode today,” Gall said afterward. Gregor M\u00fchlberger was even able to support him right up to the final climb, after which it was up to Gall himself.<\/p>\n

“I put a lot into it and tried a few times to make a difference. In the end, it was an incredibly tough day, but I’m definitely happy with this stage, and I think it gives us a lot of confidence for the rest of the Vuelta. It\u2019s also always nice to finish on the podium and pick up a few bonus seconds,\u201d said the rider currently ranked seventh.<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"jarno-widar\"\/<\/p>\n

Felix Gall finished third in the first mountain stage of the Vuelta.<\/p>\n

Other riders less impressed with Decathlon’s approach on stage 4Other teams didn\u2019t quite get it, as Movistar\u2019s Spanish rider Ivan Romeo explained to Eurosport after the race<\/a>. \u201cIt was a tough day right from the start. We were more or less planning to join the breakaway of the day, but as soon as the starting flag went up, they went full throttle. So we quickly realised they weren\u2019t going to give us much room.\u201d<\/p>\n

“After that, Decathlon kind of messed up the race. I don’t know if the people watching at home understood it, but I certainly didn’t either. Anyway, everyone makes their own tactical choices,” said Romeo. “In the end, it is what it is. Enric (Mas, who was also riding with Gall and the others, ed.) was feeling really good; he\u2019d already been saying that over the past few days.\u201d<\/p>\n

“It’s not meant as a criticism or anything, but it is a bit surprising when you see such a superior team riding. I think it surprised all of us; we were talking about it in the group, too. But anyway, it’s their race. In the end, Poga\u010dar put everyone back in their place, which was bound to happen sooner or later.”<\/p>\n

“I do hope they\u2019ll leave some of the work to others now, because otherwise there won\u2019t be many opportunities left,” said Romeo, who saw Pogacar\u2019s move coming. \u201cWe did expect him to do this, because in the first mountain stage he always wants to make the pecking order clear right away. And well, I think it\u2019s crystal clear to everyone now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Decathlon CMA CGM took control on Tuesday during the first mountain stage of the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13062],"tags":[2213,1428,4229,41297,42704,42133],"class_list":["post-69682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cma-cgm","tag-cma-cgm","tag-cycling","tag-decathlon-cma-cgm","tag-felix-gall","tag-ivan-romeo","tag-vuelta-a-espana-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}