Mauro Gianetti accepts the defeat: "I think only Pogacar can finish second in the Tour in his current form"

Despite the fact that UAE Team Emirates are still on the podium of the Tour de France with two riders, they didn't had to take few low blows. Tadej Pogacar finally fell through the ice and lost almost six minutes to Jonas Vingegaard. In an interview with WielerFlits, UAE Team Emirates team manager Mauro Gianetti accepts the defeat.

"It was a very difficult day for Tadej with the crash in the beginning, which also hit his morale. It wasn't good physically either. The Tadej we saw today is not Tadej. And Vingegaard was himself today. He was very strong, also with his team."

Read also

Urska Zigart reveals she convinced Tadej Pogacar not to abandon Tour de France: "He said: I want to go home. So I told him: you are not going home, this is the Tour"

"But his second place is also still incredible," Gianetti puts things in perspective. "Two or three weeks after Liège-Bastogne-Liège, we would not have dared to think about this. You can hope and dream with Tadej, especially when he was so strong in Bilbao… I think only Pogacar can finish second in the Tour in his current form."

"We expected that it could get a bit worse for a few days. On a day like today with more than 5000 altimeters, a very tough day both physically and mentally, it could have gone either way: he could have had a great day and showed courage, but we also knew it could go the other way . This morning we were still thinking about the yellow jersey, although Vingegaard would have needed a bad day and that was not immediately in line with expectations."

Read also

Shocking! Spectator throws cup of water into David Gaudu's face

Tadej Pogacar 'extremely disappointed' but ready to move on from Tour de France heartbreak: "When I recover, I want to give my team another stage victory"