<\/p>\n
Rather than pointing fingers, the Dane is candid about where he feels things began to shift.<\/p>\n
\u201cI maybe feel a little that in my first Tour de France I found it a bit difficult to live up to what was expected of me,\u201d Bjerg explained. \u201cI wasn\u2019t the best domestique in the entire peloton in my first Tour de France. It would have been perfect if I had been from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n
No resentment as competition intensifies<\/p>\n
Crucially, Bjerg makes clear that his reduced role has not bred frustration towards the riders who have taken on more responsibility around Pogacar.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s clear that the new riders completely deserve to be on the Tour de France team,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like I\u2019m sitting there thinking, \u2018Oh, Nils Politt shouldn\u2019t be there\u2019. Because he\u2019s incredibly good.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Bjerg, the situation is simply a reflection of the direction the team has taken as it has cemented itself as the dominant force in men\u2019s road racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t put a finger on the success, but I had also noticed that I had ridden the Tour de France every year,\u201d he added. \u201cThat\u2019s just the team\u2019s development. It\u2019s difficult to point to anything specific. There\u2019s nobody doing anything wrong. Everyone is just riding incredibly strongly.\u201d<\/p>\n
A bond that has not disappeared<\/p>\n
Despite fewer shared race days, Bjerg insists his relationship with Pogacar remains intact, forged through long periods spent together in Grand Tour environments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019ve been together in a Tour de France squad for almost two months, both at altitude training camps and in a Grand Tour, it\u2019s clear that you build a close relationship,\u201d Bjerg said. \u201cWe\u2019ve now ridden some Grand Tours together. That\u2019s something that never disappears.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also recognises that Pogacar\u2019s expanding circle within the team has, in many ways, strengthened the collective.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has ridden Grand Tours with so many different riders,\u201d Bjerg noted. \u201cObviously, he can\u2019t be best friends with everyone, but I think there are many who are thinking, \u2018I know him really well. I would go to war for him\u2019. In that way, it\u2019s really good for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Bjerg\u2019s position within UAE Team Emirates – XRG may have shifted, his words underline a rider who understands the realities of success at the very top, even when it comes at personal cost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rather than pointing fingers, the Dane is candid about where he feels things began to shift. \u201cI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,196330,79,16152,20680,181698,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-636677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-mikkel-bjerg","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tadej-pogacar","12":"tag-tour-de-france","13":"tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115731120969169384","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636677","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=636677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}