"If the stage win had been on the line, no one would have waited" - Former Tour stage winner believes context is important in GC rivals wait for crashed Tadej Pogacar
Cycling
On stage 11 of the 2025 Tour de France, some eyebrows were raised by the lack of reaction from Tadej Pogacar's GC rivals. Rather than attempt to take advantage, the likes of Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and co chose to sit up and wait for Pogacar as a mark of respect.
Israel - Premier Tech might not have a general classification challenger at the 2025 Tour de France, but speaking afterwards, sports director and former Tour stage winner Steve Bauer gave his thoughts on the hot topic of the day.
“At that point in the race, it was really about the circumstances. The breakaway was clearly going to fight for the stage win – the favourites had no chance of catching them,” began the Canadian in quotes collected by Feltet.dk. “I think it would’ve been a very different story if the stage win had been on the line. Then, no one would have waited."
"It’s about context – and a certain level of respect,” Bauer adds. “And let’s not forget, before the crash, nothing was really happening in the GC fight anyway. Everyone would’ve finished together. So it became a respectful gesture towards Tadej.”
The question has been posed online, would Pogacar have similarly waited if it was Vingegaard or Evenepoel who had gone down? According to Bauer, regardless of who of the GC contenders had crashed, the reaction would have been the same from the rest of the group.
“I believe that same respect would’ve been shown to any rider who was up there in the general classification,” he concludes. “I think it was the right call. It didn’t change anything – everyone stayed together, and the stage win was already gone. There was no point pushing on just to leave Tadej behind. That wouldn’t have been a good way to end the stage.”
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
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- What a travesty ! That little deviation did nothing to impede Brand !frieders307-11-2026
- I also wanne beat Pogacar in the tour but it aint gonne happen. Jonas unfortunately getting dropped by del toro and seixas several times this TDF and jonas team is very weak and joinas on way down, it aint happening thats clear. its also clear it only happened cause Pogacar was hurt and had a broken wrist that time everytime both full strenght its not close we just have to be honest about it :/miguel07-11-2026
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- Lucky to not get disqualified
leedorney07-11-2026
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