"Stopping is the normal thing to do" - Joxean Matxin appreciates solidarity of other teams after Tadej Pogacar's fall
Cycling
The news of the day, and probably of the entire Tour de France 2025, was the crash of Tadej Pogacar on stage 11. With 4 km to go, the world champion set off all the alarms when he crashed in the group of favorites after hooking up with Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility).
Luckily for Pogacar, the race was not launched. Ahead he was fighting for victory from the breakaway, and all his rivals, including Jonas Vingegaard and the rest of the Visma, decided to stop to wait for him.
Still, the UAE Team Emirates - XRG star finished the stage angry, with clear gestures of rage. He had abrasions and wounds on his shoulder. Such a situation is far from ideal before the key high mountain stages. UAE's tactician Joxean Matxín spoke about the incident afterwards.
"It was a scare. The teams' cars were behind us, and we didn't get a good look at it. But there was fair play on the part of our rivals. When the race is underway and you hit the ground, it's a racing incident and you have to continue. But in these cases, stopping is the normal thing to do, since the breakaway was ahead," Matxin began.
Pogacar fell 4 km from the finish line in Stage 11 of the TDF
As mentioned, it was Tobias Halland Johannessen whose attempt to follow another riders attack inadvertently caught Tadej Pogacar's rear wheel, and caused him to crash. The Uno-X Mobility rider felt guilty, and went to the UAE boss to apologize:
"Johannessen apologized to me for the incident. It's clear that falling before important stages is complicated. We'll see how it goes tomorrow," said Matxin, knowing that the next stage with Hautacam on the menu could be important for the general classification. And Pogacar will be far from 100%.
We will have to wait and see to what extent will be the Slovenian affected, but the sharks will smell blood and we can certainly look forward to fireworks of attacks coming at the Slovenian from all directions on Thursday.
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- great analysis thanks! appreciate you posting this. I didn't realize CX had a different standard for deviation. this is even more egregious it seems.mij10-11-2026
- As he isn't currently with Red Bull, I guess if he want to race for one more year he needs to find a team. He's 37 so this will be his last year I would guess, unless he wants to race for almost nothing like Froome did.awp10-11-2026
- I think some are making much ado about nothing. Even though Jonas is getting older, before his crash in the Tour, he looked like a solid 2nd all the way home. No one can really climb with Tadej until this year, Eric Mas showed himself which I think was a one off year for him and Paul Seixas has been able to be pretty close to him. Whatever stage race Jonas enters as long as Tadej is not there he is a favorite to win.awp10-11-2026
- Giro or not Giro, he won't win the Tour!MajorPayne10-11-2026
- Very true.awp10-11-2026
- Ciccone had a very strong end of season. Consistently attacking and livening up races. Hope he makes that last leap in progress and starts notching some significant wins. Great rider to watch.Occam10-11-2026
- Me too!!!!!Occam10-11-2026
- they can sign any 100 of top riders today but Pogi will win over Remco any time at the TDF unless something goes wrongabstractengineer10-11-2026
- the time for a GC rider to retire is when they cannot win stages, or have a significant level drop like from winner/podium into top 5/10 consistently. Roglic is still competitive and Froome raced even though he became pack fodder.abstractengineer10-11-2026
- He should be in a different team. It was detrimental. For them it does not matter if he does not develop. He should have gone to a team where they need him to succeed.abstractengineer10-11-2026
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