"Take it, be greedy" - Tadej Pogacar urged to not just give away chance to win Tour de France Green Jersey

Over the course of his illustrious career, Tadej Pogacar has won all but one of the jerseys on offer at the Tour de France. The one missing in the Green Jersey, usually reserved for the best sprinter in the race. This time around however, Pogacar is very much in the mix, and former INEOS Grenadiers road captain Luke Rowe has urged the Slovenian not to pass up on the opportunity.

Already leading the general classification and the King of the Mountains standings, Pogacar could become the first man since Eddy Merckx, all the way back in 1969 to finish the Tour as winner if the Yellow, Polka-dot and Green Jerseys. Ahead of stage 18, he sits 2nd in the standings, 72 points down on Jonathan Milan.

It seemed on stage 17 however, that the UAE Team Emirates - XRG leader had made a conscious effort to steer clear of the fight for Green Jersey points, something Rowe hopes he won't later come to regret.

"If I was him, I'd take everything I can," Rowe said on TNT Sports' The Breakaway. "It might not be a very popular opinion. He could have rolled through the intermediate sprint in the top 11, zero risk, zero effort. It was a conscious decision to not do that. He gave away points for free - I wouldn't do it. I'd take it, I'd be greedy."

To prove his point, Rowe compares Pogacar with one of his former teammates. "You never know when that moment is going to come when you stop winning. Cav [Mark Cavendish] tried to give a stage or two away during his career to Mark Renshaw, tried to give one away to Michael Morkov, and then it took him two or three years to win his final stage and take that record," explains the Welshman. "You never know when you're going to stop winning. As ruthless as it sounds, really take all you can, because the time will come when you stop winning, and you look back and you go 'I could have had that'."

Whilst Rowe is clearly keen to see Pogacar go all out for the remainder of this Tour, his companion on TNT, three-time Tour de France Green Jersey winner Robbie McEwen, believes Pogacar is probably wise to stay safe and out of the sprints for points.

"I think he's just sticking to the original goal coming to the Tour: win the Tour de France, win the yellow jersey," the Australian said. "When it comes to the green jersey, it was never part of the plan, I think they [UAE] are just sticking to what they came to do and not taking any risks."

"Had he taken points at the intermediate sprint and then started thinking a bit more about it, 'Maybe I'll just ride further towards the front when we come to the finish, maybe sneak in a few points in the top 20', 'Oh there's a big crash at one kilometre to go and Tadej Pogacar's in it'," McEwen adds in conclusion. "You don't want him taking risks like that, so maybe just say 'we're not interested, stay back, stay out of it, stay safe."