Pogacar the breakaway rider? UAE Tour leader stuns as he joins breakaway on a sprint stage
Cycling
The UAE Tour is a race with four pan-flat stages however very few will complain about the lack of action. Whilst stage 4 featured lots of echelons, stage 5 has no other than Tadej Pogacar in the breakaway - despite the UAE Team Emirates - XRG rider being the race leader. It is an absolute spectacle that the fearless rider is putting on, experimenting himself in a race situation where he is rarely ever allowed.
The World Champion certainly stamps his authority with such a risky move. On the fourth stage the race leader was already active early in the day, many assuming that he is here at the UAE to have fun. After the stage 2 time-trial and victory in Jebel Jais the Slovenian is already in the race lead, and is the uncontested favourite to win the overall classification.
It is possible that he feels comfortable enough in the race lead that he will put himself through an effort that seems completely unnecessary and in vain. Little is to be expected from his breakaway attempt this afternoon in the UAE, but he decided to put on a show.
Last year Lennert van Eetvelt won the overall classification over a perfectly-planned breakaway during the flat stages which saw him gain valuable bonus seconds in the intermediate sprints. It's hard to argue that Pogacar is in need of these seconds, but he and the Belgian joined forces on an attack together with Pogacar's teammate Domen Novak and INEOS' Victor Langellotti.
As of the time of writing, the breakaway is 117 kilometers away from the finish, with just over 2 minutes of lead, and it's a group of 11 riders which will certainly make some teams in the peloton nervous. The overall classification contenders are joined by two Bardiani riders, four Vini Fantini riders and Intermarché-Wanty's Kobe Goossens.
Tadej is different, unique, out of the herd, let him express himself as he wants, even if we don't understand him.
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- my formative years in racing were in the 80s and 90s. back then the tone of the peloton was HARSH, aggressive, unfriendly and often mean. amateur racers just modeled what they saw from the pros, so many of the guys a raced with and against were outright a$$hole$, by choice. my great hope is that the amateur ranks now model the tone of kindness and support and compassion that we see in the pro peloton NOW. the greatest stars — tadej, wout, mathieu, demi, kasia, and on and on, never say an unkind word about their brothers and sisters in the peloton, and are often the first even in defeat to hug and congratulate the winner. these are better times in my opinion. maybe some fans miss the “get your hate on” tone of the older days. i do not.OCexile04-04-2025
- That was one of the best interviews. Coming from the best guy in the world Pogi has so much class. Of course he wants to beat MVDP And sees him as the biggest rival. I kind of felt it was a set up to ask Pogi about Wout being a rival. If he was truly honest, he might have said Wout isn’t a threat at this point. Instead, he just laid out the facts and added some opinions that didn’t diminish the respect he ultimately has for Wout or any competitor for that matter even if they aren’t a threat. Pogi is a master at showing sportsmanship. When he loses to MVDP It’s not a big deal and he’s laughing and goofing around and all giddy as if he did win. He just truly loves racing more than he loves winning. Truly a delight to see him on the podium No matter what step he’s on.Onepiece04-04-2025
- The cherry-picked headline makes it sound like MvDP is making an arrogant statement, but reading his statement in full reveals that it's more of a cautious optimism.
KerisVroom04-04-2025 - Pride and overconfidence strike again. Come on Wout! What a bonehead. They had a royal flush in spades and folded the hand. He knows he’s not in his best form after recovering from all the injuries. These are not normal circumstances for a sprint. They should have played tactics and put Powless to the sword by individually attacking thus wearing him out to cover all the attacks. If they wore him out wout MAY have won. It’s sad to see a guy go from insane pride to whimpering dog like that. Yes Wout is under immense pressure, so make some wise and shrewd decisions buddy! Standing there on the podium in 2 or 3 spot he always has the look of a sourpuss sore loser. Show some class buddy! Better success next timeOnepiece04-04-2025
- Well said, Pogi!!!!!!Al04-04-2025
- Why do Ineos want him.? He cannot challenge the big four and they already have a ton of strong domestiquesabstractengineer04-04-2025
- As Wout said on Srava today "Things don't always go your way... but a flat white and peanut butter brownie can make up for a lot" Puts it in perspective!VgnRider04-04-2025
- Watch out Urska, I think he’s taken a liking to MVDP ;-)Mistermaumau04-04-2025
- Totally!Mistermaumau04-04-2025
- It will be interesting to see how he goes on the cobbles, so far he's looking very strong.awp04-04-2025