'All that work for that?' - UAE tactics questioned after late Tadej Pogacar attack on Tour de France Stage 13
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Published 14/07/2023 at 16:46 GMT
While a breakaway won the day on Grand Colombier, with Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) taking the victory on Stage 13, it was also a day for the general classification contenders as Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) launched a late break and pinched a bit of time back on race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma), but the tactics were called into question.
'All that work... for that?!' - UAE's tactics questioned after late, late Pogacar attack
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) ate into Jonas Vingegaard’s Tour de France lead to the tune of eight seconds on Friday, but the Eurosport team on The Breakaway were critical of the tactics of the team.
Pogacar had fond memories of the Grand Colombier, having won there on route to Tour de France victory in 2020.
Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma team felt the Colombier would be better suited to Pogacar than the defending champion, and so it proved.
The damage was limited to eight seconds, as Pogacar crossed the line narrowly in front of Vingegaard while also taking four bonus seconds for finishing third on the stage.
Pogacar and UAE may head away from Stage 13 with a sense of regret, as the team worked all day to try and control the break - seemingly with a stage win in mind - but they did not get it and a lot of effort was invested for a small reward.
That was the view of Adam Blythe, Robbie McEwen, Dan Lloyd and host Orla Chennaoui on The Breakaway.
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Stage 13 highlights: Kwiatkowski emerges victorious as Pogacar launches late attack
Reflecting on Pogacar leaving it late to attack, Blythe said: “We knew it was coming but I thought it would be sooner.
“It was an amazing attack, but for me we knew it was coming but that was a lot of work from his team for the one minute of effort that he did.
“That’s three hours of work done by his team, a lot of riders in the red. We saw Marc Soler, he was done at the end of it.
“We have two huge days coming up, massive days, and they have done all that work for a minute of effort and four seconds’ advantage.
"It’s not a lot of advantage in the grand scheme of things and with what’s to come.
“It is amazing that Pogacar is flying, but if they want to do that tomorrow they are going to have to do that all day long and Jumbo-Visma will be like ‘we know they are going to do this, we know what Pogacar is capable of.’ So they will use it to their advantage and put pressure on them early, put riders in the break and expose them as much as you can.”
While Vingegaard’s lead was trimmed to nine seconds, McEwen felt Jumbo-Visma would be happy with how the day played out.
“I think Jumbo-Visma will sit back at the end of today and think ‘that pretty much went to plan,’” 12-time Tour de France stage winner McEwen said. “They knew the climb suited Pogacar better, they knew what happened in 2020 when Pogacar won there in front of (Primoz) Roglic.
“They (UAE) have put in a massive workload, okay he got eight seconds with the bonus, but to take an extra four. All that work for that?
“It is very reminiscent of last year, grabbing seconds and Vingegaard just went ‘bang, here’s the hammer.’”
Lloyd felt UAE could have done better in controlling the race at the start by limiting the number of riders in the break to make it easier to reel them in on the final climb.
“If you are going to go for the stage win, which it appears they did as they would not have rode that hard otherwise, you have got to make sure the group is smaller,” Lloyd said.
Lloyd continued: “Letting a 20-man break to go up the road and then use three of your guys to try and control it, it was always going to be incredibly hard and they could not catch them all before the finish.”
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