"Had Pogacar been fully focused, he might have avoided it" - Tyler Hamilton critical of world champion's inattentiveness after Tour de France crash

Tadej Pogacar's quest for a 4th Tour de France victory was almost brought to a very premature end on stage 11 as the Slovenian was caught up in late crash with Uno-X Mobility's Tobias Johannessen. According to American former Tour de France stage winner Tyler Hamilton though, Pogacar would have had no one to blame but himself.

“He (Pogacar) lost focus for a split second, moved left while the group shifted right, clipped a wheel and went down,” explained the 54-year-old American in his Tour de France analysis for TV2.dk. “Did Johannessen move across a bit too quickly? Possibly. But had Pogacar been fully focused, he might have avoided it. It’s hard to say.”

Thankfully, Pogacar has seemingly escaped any serious injury, although he is battling on with some notable cuts and abrasions. Still, Hamilton believes Pogacar will be counting his lucky stars that it didn't end up much worse. “It’s more important to focus on what could have happened,” he says. “Pogacar could easily have been forced to abandon with a broken collarbone. He was lucky – very lucky – to walk away from it.”

Luckily, not only for Pogacar, but for the whole race though, that wasn't the case. “We’re fortunate the great showdown between him and Jonas Vingegaard is still on the cards," Hamilton concludes. "It would’ve been a real blow if he’d had to pull out.”