"Crashes are part of cycling" - TNT studio clash over GC rivals reaction to Tadej Pogacar's Tour de France crash

On a thrilling stage 11 at the 2025 Tour de France, the main talking point was the late crash of UAE Team Emirates - XRG leader Tadej Pogacar. Showing the world champion great respect, the Slovenian's GC rivals chose not to take advantage, and waited up for Pogacar, crossing the finish line altogether.

This decision split the TNT Sports studio post-stage, with host Orla Chennaoui at odds with the trio of ex-pro pundits Robbie McEwen, Adam Blythe and Zdenek Stybar. "As I'm watching as a fan, I'm fully invested in what's happening. Somebody hits the deck and you're thinking, 'What's going to happen now? Where's this race going to go?' And you're excited," Chennaoui explained. "You don't want anybody to profit off a crash. But crashes are part of cycling. If you're a fan and you're off the sofa thinking, 'What's going to happen? Oh, nothing. So I've been watching this all day... Why?'"

"There's no fixed rule, there's no rule about it at all," explains McEwen. "But it does heavily depend on the situation at the time: have you been put under pressure and made a mistake? Or have you just been desperately unlucky? The rest of the group has done 100% the right thing - 1,000,000% the right thing!"

"I would say in this situation, if Visma or Quick-Step were pulling full gas on the front and then he crashed, carry on. But no one was pulling," Blythe added, with Stybar also in agreement with Pogacar's GC rivals.

"If you win the Tour de France, you want to win it with a clear mind. You want to enjoy the victory," said the former Tour de France stage winner. "If something like this happened, and you won because somebody crashed, you're never going to be happy in the same way."

Chennaoui though, insists this kind of racing is difficult to understand for the average fan watching on TV. "I'm just not sure that it is as understandable from the outside of this sport as it is to all of you racing in it," she concludes. "I'm exposing myself to so much hate here. I know how much people love respect in the peloton. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. But sometimes, as a sports fan, I get disappointed when racing is called off when you're expecting this to be the moment it's going to go."

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