{"id":270421,"date":"2025-07-17T22:17:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T22:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/270421\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T22:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T22:17:11","slug":"if-he-didnt-crash-he-would-have-won-by-four-minutes-uae-team-emirates-xrg-astounded-by-latest-tadej-pogacar-tour-de-france-masterclass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/270421\/","title":{"rendered":"‘If he didn\u2019t crash, he would have won by four minutes’ – UAE Team Emirates-XRG astounded by latest Tadej Poga\u010dar Tour de France masterclass"},"content":{"rendered":"

When dawn broke on the 2025 Tour de France\u2019<\/a>s first stage in the Pyrenees, there was a sense among most many that this was going to be the comeback day. Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a>, having crashed the day before, was at risk of being overhauled by Jonas Vingegaard <\/a>and, at least according to performances so far, by the better, healthier and more numerous team, Visma-Lease a Bike.<\/p>\n

In Poga\u010dar\u2019s Toulouse hotel, however, there were no such thoughts. \u201cThis morning at the meeting, it was like being in school and the teacher was having to say, \u2018hey guys, focus a little bit\u2019,\u201d Tim Wellens of UAE Team Emirates-XRG recalled. \u201cWe were laughing at other things and not really having the meeting.\u201d Nils Politt, another one of Poga\u010dar\u2019s devout teammates, reported similar vibes. \u201cYesterday evening we saw he was OK [after the crash] so we were already in a good mood. And then today he was super confident. He said on the bus that he wanted to win today.\u201d So much for being fearful of the Visma assault, huh.<\/p>\n

The stage from Auch to Hautacam ended with Poga\u010dar doing what Poga\u010dar does: winning. Convincingly. \u201cIt\u2019s no surprise anymore,\u201d Politt said. \u201cWhen he says he wants to go, then most of the time he goes.\u201d He put two minutes and 10 seconds into Vingegaard<\/a> on the first big mountain day, a time gap that no one foresaw. \u201cIt\u2019s beyond our dreams,\u201d UAE\u2019s sports manager Matxin Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cTo take more than two minutes\u2026 that was never even in our best plans.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It was an annihilation. In other GC contests there\u2019d be talk about the potential for off-days, and the mind would cast back to as recently as May when Simon Yates spun the Giro d\u2019Italia on its head in the most unlikely of circumstances, but this is Tadej Poga\u010dar. He doesn\u2019t do collapses. \u201cTadej is on another level,\u201d Wellens remarked.<\/p>\n

The man himself concurred. He operates in his own exclusive one-man competition, reserved for him only. \u201cBased on my feeling, I feel at the best moment of my career,\u201d the 26-year-old world champion said. \u201cI\u2019m riding in the rainbow jersey, I ride with an amazing team, amazing teammates, so it\u2019s like a fairytale for me. Now is the peak of my career, the last two, three years, and I try to hold it as long as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar ascended the 13.25km HC climb of the Hautacam in 35 minutes and eight seconds. Only Bjarne Riis in 1996 was quicker, by 30 seconds. The Slovenian smashed Vingegaard\u2019s time on the same climb from 2022 by 1:27, and that, memories of that fateful day three years ago, is key to how he performed this time around.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor sure, it was playing on my mind from 2022, when I lost the Tour here,\u201d he said. That day he was even dropped by Wout van Aert. Nothing of the like three years on. \u201cEven though I really like this climb, I lost it that day so I was really motivated today.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He was helped too by sterling work from his teammates: first, from Nils Politt in controlling the breakaway, and then from Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez who unleashed a wicked turn of speed at the foot of the Hautacam. So violent was the Ecuadorian\u2019s move that it shredded what remained of the front bunch, and when Adam Yates returned to his team\u2019s bus afterwards he insisted that he needed to ride Narv\u00e1ez\u2019s bike to see what was inside it. The Briton then rode up and down the road, chuckling as he did so. Narv\u00e1ez has been an inspired signing from Ineos Grenadiers \u2013 and doesn\u2019t Poga\u010dar know it.<\/p>\n

\u201cJhonny doesn\u2019t take jokes, I guess, he sent it full gas,\u201d Poga\u010dar said. \u201cAdam was not in the [Crit\u00e9rium du] Dauphin\u00e9, so he was like, \u2018what is this guy doing?\u2019, but I was like, \u2018OK, I see the plan of Jhonny, I follow, I try to commit, the worst thing that happens is that I can blow and go a bit slower. But in the end Jhonny did a good move, we went full gas and then I remained alone and it was better with a kilometre solo to the finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twenty-fours on from hitting the road in Toulouse, Poga\u010dar reminded everyone that the Tour de France\u2019s yellow jersey belongs to him, and no one else. Vingegaard had it for two consecutive years, but he won\u2019t be getting it back again. The next nine stages should be a procession. \u201cI imagine that if he didn\u2019t crash, he would have won by four minutes,\u201d Wellens said, tongue-in-cheek, but definitely not tongue-in-cheek. \u201cHe\u2019s mentally super strong, focused, and always delivers.\u201d A fourth Tour title feels inevitable now. \u201cThis is not finished,\u201d his team\u2019s manager Fern\u00e1ndez cautioned. \u201cParis is still far.\u201d Good luck getting people to buy into that messaging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When dawn broke on the 2025 Tour de France\u2019s first stage in the Pyrenees, there was a sense…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-270421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114870894301800750","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}