"Better finish in three hours than four hours and 30 minutes" - Tadej Pogacar explains unexpected breakaway day at UAE Tour

Tadej Pogacar is a rider who truly seems to love cycling in all it's forms and at the UAE Tour, he came not only for the wins but also training and fun - perhaps not too different than his Paris-Roubaix recon which sparked a lot of debates. Today he joined the day's breakaway on a pan-flat day, and the World Champion explains why he did so.

"I was thinking of the Volta a Catalunya last year where we were attacking the bunch but at the time we were just two, it was a bit of fun. But today some riders followed and we formed a breakaway and we just committed to it somehow," the race leader explained in a post-race interview. "It was a good day out trying to pull the breakaway".

The Slovenian looked to have tried the same on Thursday, but today he managed to get the gap he hoped for with teammate Domen Novak, Lennert van Eetvelt and Victor Langellotti. The peloton let them go, and they joined another seven riders that had previously attacked.

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The 11-rider group forced the peloton to ride full-gas all day long, averaging 48Km/h on the day. Pogacar himself obtained three bonus seconds in the intermediate sprints, although it must be argued that they will likely not be needed. The Slovenian did however extend his race lead. "If it's not beneficial in 5 years I don't care," he says. 

"We're here, I was prepared here for racing, if there would be crosswinds we would have more or same the same effort, I was prepared for everything and today was a nice day out, a bit of training. Tomorrow I hope for a more quiet stage". It was an out of the ordinary moment, rarely seen in cycling, specially in this kind of stage. Pogacar is probably aware that strategy-wise it was a wasteful effort, but his difference over the rest of the field in terms of climbing was likely enough of a reason for him to try on an adventure.

"I think today was I think for 90% of the peloton a good day, because we finished the stage faster, there were more people pulling in the peloton because I was in front with [Lennert] van Eetvelt, so many people were rotating in the back. We shared the load today and we did it much faster. If not, we would still be out on the heat, so better finish in three hours than four hours and 30 minutes," he concluded.  

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