Tadej Pogacar laments Primoz Roglic's Tour de France withdraw: "I'm really disappointed for him, really sad for him"

Tadej Pogacar snatched the Tour de France victory from Primoz Roglic back in 2020 and that set up the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe rider for a mission that continues until today: Win the Tour de France. Roglic has now crashed out of the race for a third participation in a row and his compatriot has shared a lot of sorrow for how the race turned out.

"Like I said already yesterday I'm really disappointed for him, really sad for him. I didn't speak to him yet but I read just before the start when we're coming here that he didn't start today," Pogacar told ITV Cycling at the start of the day. "It's a real shame for the race because he was really going good and it would be better for the final victory".

In his non-fluent English, Pogacar showed true emotion for his compatriot, although it must be said that the yellow jersey was able to comfortably drop his rival on the difficult stages. At the start of the sixth stage Roglic would be in sixth position after losing two and a half minutes last afternoon, having crashed 10 kilometers away from the finish in a chaotic incident. It was one that Pogacar believes couldn't be avoided and was a matter of bad luck.

"There's always in the Tour de France crashes that you cannot expect, you can be at the wrong moment at the wrong time and if you have a strong team around you it helps but not always," Pogacar adds. Roglic at the time of the crash was only about 30 positions back on the head of the peloton, but this was enough to get caught up in the mass crash. "If you have a strong team you ride in the front, but yeah this can happen specially in the Tour de France even more than any other race".