"The looks say it all" - Arkéa - B&B Hotels scolded for attack on Tadej Pogacar whilst world champion enjoyed nature break at Tour of Flanders 2025
CyclingTuesday, 08 April 2025 at 11:08
Tadej Pogacar claimed his second Tour of Flanders victory
today, delivering a commanding performance to avenge his recent Milano–Sanremo
defeat to Mathieu van der Poel. But while his ride to glory will dominate the
headlines, the day began with unexpected controversy, and not the kind you'd
expect in a Monument.
The drama unfolded early in the race when Pogacar, wearing
the world champion’s rainbow jersey for UAE Team Emirates–XRG, pulled over
during a lull in the action to take a comfort break. As is customary, a
teammate moved to the front of the bunch to inform the peloton, a standard act
of courtesy in the pro peloton. But not everyone respected the protocol.
Rather than ease up, riders from Arkéa - B&B Hotels and a few others
seized the moment to launch an attack, increasing the pace as Pogacar was
briefly off the bike.
“The world champion's domestique just came up to the front
to explain that Pogacar was about to stop for a comfort break,” said Rob Hatch
on TNT Sports. “Everybody else started to do the same until, very bad
etiquette, Arkea and a couple of other teams en masse [attacked]... that looked
an organised move. It's pretty hard to miss Tadej Pogacar in the brilliant
white and rainbows.”
Reactions came swiftly, with Robbie McEwen summing up the
moment in silence: “Not even words. The looks say it all.”
Adam Blythe offered a more nuanced perspective. “There are
two sides to this. It’s not a stage race, so technically there’s no leader.
Yes, he’s the world champion. But is there a rule, or is it just a gentleman’s
agreement [to stop]? I wouldn’t have attacked…”
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- Given the last week's inclinations - he's riding really well.. it's all to play for and they all know that to, any of the top 10 can win this
leedorney29-05-2025 - What does he have to learn?leedorney29-05-2025
- Almeida’s is up in 2027 when he’ll be 28. Let the bidding begin.Mistermaumau28-05-2025
- You were wondering how come MVDP is rated higher by whoever and the way JM refers to a website. Obviously they’re all somehow ranking which means attributing a score to performance. As I said, no idea how but one reason he may be ranked higher is if more than just wins are counted. Like at the Olympics, some rank by gold, some prefer considering all medals, usually in order for a preferred country/athlete to look better. At some moment, in order to rank more than wins, every ranking or algorithm has to attribute points or value to different positions in order to tally and compare.Mistermaumau28-05-2025
- If you’re really young, your body doesn’t even remember what you did to it the day before ;-)Mistermaumau28-05-2025
- The good thing about being young is that you recover faster than older people after a good night sleep and in the interview he said he had the best sleep after a rough day yesterday.
KerisVroom28-05-2025 - I don't know where you are referring to "points," given that I was looking at wins in different categories (overall, monuments, world tour) and trying to make different comparisons to illustrate my point. Could you clarify?RidesHills28-05-2025
- His contract is until 2028. Isaac's contract is until 2029 and will be revised if he can keep the GC podium. Like it or not, it will be very hard for other team to secure Juan Ayuso's service before the end of the contract because UAE has money and won't let go of him that easily.KerisVroom28-05-2025
- In a team where Pogi is present, the others would be helpers was already known. Yet Ayuso, Almeida, Adam all signed up due to money. Now they cannot demand anything over Pogi. Leftovers is the best that they can get.abstractengineer28-05-2025
- How long does Ayuso have left at UAE? That might open up a slot unless Del Toro takes it.Renz28-05-2025
Even if not technically against the rules, this is just bad etiquette and frankly I hope the rest of pelaton remembers Arkea don't care about etiquette or honoring tradition which means they shouldn't benifit from it.
I know it’s tradition and nice but to make the discussion more interesting, if an Arkea rider had driven up to tell Alpecin or UAE to ease off for Mozzato or Vauquelin having a P, would they have been as gentlemanly?
I don’t think it was a matter of easing up. I think it was a matter of attacking. And MVDP said his team would respect similar situations. Perhaps not on the penultimate climb, but I believe they would. To accelerate is a jerk move.
To quote the article:
riders from Arkéa - B&B Hotels and a few others seized the moment to launch an attack, increasing the pace as Pogacar was briefly off the bike.
Not cool