"It's a shock when you find out that Tadej fell" - UAE DS describes how everyone in teamcar went silent

As if the abandon of co-leader Joao Almeida wasn't enough of a complication for UAE Team Emirates - XRG, now their main star Tadej Pogacar also fell in the eleventh stage. Luckily for the Slovenian, he has only suffered a collateral damage and can continue his hunt for fourth Tour de France title.

"Fortunately, it seems that everything will be fine with Tadej for now," UAE sports director Andrej Hauptman told Television Slovenia after the stage.

Hauptman applauded the captains of rival teams, especially Jonas Vingegaard and Visma | Lease a Bike, who unanimously put aside their ambitions and allowed the Slovenian to return to the bunch: "We have to thank the fair play of the other teams, who waited for Tadej like gentlemen."

"We were in the car behind, two or three minutes behind," the sports director narrates how everyone suddenly went silent in the teamcar when Pogacar hit the ground. "It's a shock when you find out that Tadej fell. It happens, we knew that these 11 days would be very hectic and you saw what could happen."