Soudal - Quick-Step tactics "played into my hands” admits Tadej Pogacar after another scintilating stage win
CyclingSaturday, 20 July 2024 at 18:50
Tadej Pogacar seemed to hint that his days of attacking at the 2024 Tour de France were over after stage 19. When the situation arose for another victory on stage 20 however, the Slovenian did not pass up the opportunity.
Despite UAE Team Emirates content to let the break settle the stage and even getting Marc Soler in the move, Soudal - Quick-Step and Remco Evenepoel took to the front of the bunch to set a fierce pace in an attempt to pressure Jonas Vingegaard in the fight for 2nd behind Pogacar, in the process, bringing the break within touching distance of the GC group on the final climb.
"I really enjoyed this even though it didn’t go as planned,” Pogacar reflected post-stage. “I was very surprised that the race exploded on the Col de Braus, one of my favourite training passes in this region. But our guys did a great job. We all came together and then Soler got into the breakaway. That was good for us. We then tried to take it as easy as possible to go to the final with a big group. But Soudal - Quick-Step wanted to try to gain some time on Jonas, I think. Or to win the stage. That played into my hands.”
"It's the perfect Tour. If you had said this beforehand, I wouldn't have believed it. It's out of this world. I'm so happy. I hope I can celebrate this victory with my teammates today and tomorrow," added Pogacar, who claimed his 5th mountain stage win of this race in the process.
The UAE Team Emirates leader also had a word for his great rival Vingegaard. “He had a few tough days, but today he showed that he is not easy to break. He is a real fighter. He gave everything today, he rode very well and was very strong,” Pogacar concludes. “Five stages is more than enough. One would have been enough, or just the yellow jersey. But it is what it is, you don’t hit the brakes in cycling. Do I still want to win tomorrow? We’ll see, if I have really good legs… But above all, I have to arrive safely in Nice. It’s a pretty dangerous time trial. Maybe I can enjoy the audience a bit more.”
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- Let's not forget that Pedersen won the Worlds in Yorkshire in true North of England conditions which are hell basically, when it's bad..
leedorney12-05-2025 - Vingo is the best Dane cyclist. He's the only one who beat Pogi two time in Tour de France.
James2631812-05-2025 - Its a pretty easy comparison, Jonas is the best. Look at his opponent the Best rider of his generation and 3rd best of all time Pogi who he has beaten twice in TDF. Pedersen cant even beat MVDP in monumentsabstractengineer12-05-2025
- Did the person who wrote this article catch any of last season and what happened? Cut the guy some slack and stop feeding of someone else’s hard times, the above article is pretty redundant.Jezla12-05-2025
- Hey, all great and deserving of respect but let’s not look at things too pinkly. He’s only just above Marc Hirschi in the UCI rankings. He’s had the potential to do this for the last 7-8 years, it’s just all come together at once, having his moment. Maybe he went on a secret HA camp :-) Seriously though, he’s NEVER said he doesn’t believe in it (challenge: find me that quote), he said he hates it in words that would get an F1 driver punished, and for the same reasons that his fellow countryman Jonas gets crucified for, being away from family (though given team budgets, there is an obvious solution to that). Besides, not very professional of media and pundits to linger on past out of date sayings, he’s more or less changed his mind in the meantime and is no longer categoric about refusing to try.Mistermaumau12-05-2025
- I don’t think that pays off in cycling, you never know when your next problem will happen, injury, illness, crash, and using so much time to prepare for a big goal risks being very disappointing in a short career.Mistermaumau12-05-2025
- I love Remco but this year is a write-off. The smart move would be to treat it all as preparation for next season.Renz12-05-2025
- What you forget about hunting is that time is on the side of the hunter. You’d be a fool to underestimate rivals who haven’t peaked and I doubt you’ll hear any riders including TP or JV brushing him off like you’re trying. He’s done one GT against them, his first, what were you expecting? Still way ahead of any other contenders and that as a first-timer.Mistermaumau12-05-2025
- Its appears that way. Repeated crashes take a toll on the bodyabstractengineer11-05-2025
- He cannot hunt down something that he has never been close to in GTsabstractengineer11-05-2025
There is nothing to tell, he did what he needed. Before the week, the talk is about how pogacar will fall in week 3 & 'is 1'15" is enough to hold Jonas ?' and bluh bluh bluh. Now the talk is how greedy he was and 'is it necessary to attack for Pogaćar?'...... even the narrative in the media is some what unimaginable. They ask him that 'yesterday you said it's a breakaway day, what happened' , even if they knew what happened, they love the narrative behind that. This kind of question will lead to negative image on riders but they do it anyway.
The best answer for any of this bulls*** is winning as much as you can, 6 stage is not enough. ' CONSISTENT HATE WILL BRING YOU RESPECTED LOVE '
TJ on the Peacock broadcasts was continually whining about Tadeg not letting others win ! Guess he expected gifts that weren't being given. Not sure how TJ made the cut as a sports director with that mentality !