Tour de France 2023: Tadej Pogacar will be ‘very, very angry’ after motorbike incident – Adam Blythe

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) is likely to be “very, very angry” at the way Stage 14 panned out in his general classification tussle with Jonas Vingegaard, reckons Eurosport’s Adam Blythe.

However, Vingegaard topped the Col de Joux Plane ahead of Pogacar, getting bonus seconds of his own and securing a net gain on the stage of one second.

The centre of the Slovenian’s misfortune came on the Joux Plane.

Pogacar tried to attack Vingegaard but was impeded by motorbikes, which were themselves slowed by the thick corridor of spectators. As Pogacar was forced to the front, Vingegaard was then able to launch a surprise attack to claim eight bonus seconds, while the Slovenian had to settle for five.

It was an incident discussed on The Breakaway after the stage, with Blythe, alongside Orla Chennaoui, Dan Lloyd and Robbie McEwen, saying the UAE Team Emirates rider will have been likely left frustrated by how his afternoon turned out.

“When Pogacar went on that final climb today, we were saying ‘he’s not looking good’,” began Blythe.

“Then when he went, he were like ‘We can’t read him at all’, and then he got brought back. I think when he got brought back we said that he wouldn’t be happy with that.

“I think he must not have been [happy], so when he accelerated and got caught behind the motorbikes – he would have been like, ‘damn it’ and then he got rolled in a very silly sprint at the end of it, so I think we’re going to have a very, very angry Tadej Pogacar.

“It’s just full of drama today.”

Stage 15 sees the peloton once again traverse the Alps, with a 179km ride from Les Gets to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc.

There are another five category climbs – three Cat. 1 climbs, one Cat. 2 and one Cat. 3 climb – in what is set to be another Herculean general classification battle.

Pogacar will start the stage 10 seconds in arrears of Vingegaard, with Rodríguez in third after his win on Stage 14, some 4’33” back.

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