"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

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.”