Tour de France 2022 – ‘Angry’ Tadej Pogacar won’t give up yellow jersey on purpose, says Mark Cavendish

Tadej Pogacar will not deliberately give away yellow at the Tour de France, Mark Cavendish tells Eurosport, after UAE Team Emirates’ tactics were questioned on Stage 9.

Pogacar came through another test in the GC battle in the first Alpine finish on Sunday, even managing to sneak a few seconds on all of his closest rivals except Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) with a cheeky sprint finish.

But it was a stressful day for UAE after they decided to chase a break involving Rigoberto Uran (EF Education–EasyPost), who at one point moved into the virtual leader’s jersey after starting the stage 3’24” down on Pogacar.

With two weeks of the Tour still remaining, and UAE down to seven riders after Vegard Stake Laengen left the race after testing positive for Covid, The Breakaway panel – featuring special guest Cavendish – wondered if the team should have let another team take over yellow jersey duties.

“I was quite surprised when you think about what UAE did, they could have maybe let the break go out to five minutes, brought it back a minute and a half, and given Uran the jersey,” said Adam Blythe.

“We’re always talking about how the team isn’t that strong around him [Pogacar], I think it is, but just give the team a few days’ rest.

“When Pogacar goes, he’ll get rid of them [Uran and EF] when he wants to, but just take that responsibility from the team. Sit back, let them [EF] control it for a few days.”

Pogacar leads the general classification by 39 seconds from Vingegaard, with Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) in third at 1’17”.

“They [UAE] could have ridden easier today. They chose to ride a bit harder and completely control it,” said Robbie McEwen.

“They could have even let Uran stay in front, by a minute and a half, it wouldn’t have really mattered. But they took matters into their own hands and rode pretty hard.

“There’s a few people thinking they’re going to end up paying for these efforts.”

But Cavendish, who was a controversial omission at the Tour as Quick-Step opted to take Fabio Jakobsen as their sprinter, said there was no chance Pogacar would give up the yellow jersey on purpose.

“I think knowing Pogacar and how he rides, he’s not going to give it away,” said the 34-time Tour stage winner.

“It’s not an agreement of any sort, he’s a racer. It’s more likely [giving away the jersey] in a team that calculates ‘how are we going to get to the end of a three-week race?’.

“He [Pogacar] is a racer, the same with Wout [van Aert]. They go into a bike race, doesn’t matter if it’s uphill, downhill, left, right, they’re racing their bike. That mentality is not going to change.”

Cavendish also suggested Pogacar was “angry” during his sprint to Chatel Les Portes du Soleil.

When reviewing the Stage 9 finish, the Manx Missile said: “He’s angry. His team’s done all the work and then the other teams have tried to use that to their advantage and isolated and attacked him.

“Looking at how he’s sprinting, how he’s doing it, he’s angry.”

McEwen added: “What’s maybe worrying for the other teams is Pogacar’s completely comfortable having yellow.

“Happy to defend it every single day and hang on through the whole thing. Because he’s probably sitting there thinking ‘it’s not all that hard yet, so why would I give it away?’

“He hasn’t made a big effort to attack on the climb but he’s come to the end and gone ‘how about this extra three seconds, in your face!’ Death by a thousand cuts, just showing his strength all the time”.

After the Tour takes a break on Monday, the peloton returns on Tuesday for a lumpy run from Morzine to Megeve.

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