Tour de France: ‘It’s weak team directing’ – UAE come under fire after Tadej Pogacar cracks in Pyrenees

UAE Team Emirates’ tactics at the Tour de France came in for strong criticism on The Breakaway after Tadej Pogacar unravelled on Stage 5, with Robbie McEwen calling out “weak team directing”.

Pogacar arrived with major doubts over his form and fitness after fracturing his wrist at Liege-Bastogne-Liege in April, but made an aggressive start in his bid for a third Tour title as he grabbed a spree of bonus seconds on the opening two stages in the Basque Country.

Meanwhile, UAE grabbed the yellow jersey on Stage 1 with Adam Yates and defended it gusto, a decision that backfired on Wednesday when Pogacar was isolated, and then distanced, on the final climb.

Pogacar had no response as Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) set off in pursuit of escapee Jai Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe), eventually coming home over a minute down on the Danish defending champion.

He sat sixth in the general classification ahead of Stage 6, 1’40” behind Hindley in yellow and 1’03” off Vingegaard in second.

“If we look yesterday on the top of the main climb, he had the whole team on the front drilling it, the faces just absolutely in pain,” said Adam Blythe.

“We’re on day five! They are trying to hold onto that GC spot and they did that, lost all the team-mates, put Tadej under pressure and then he got dropped by one attack – it wasn’t a number of attacks. I think that will scare them a little bit.”

Speaking to Eurosport ahead of Thursday’s stage to Cambasque, Pogacar admitted he had little idea how strong he would be at the Tour, prompting exasperation from McEwen.

“I think it’s weak team directing by not telling him to hold back,” said the 12-time Tour stage winner.

“Tadej says ‘we didn’t know how good I was going to be, we knew Jonas was going to be good’ – well why ride so aggressively? I think the team directors are not really doing their job. It just seems so adhoc.”

Blythe added: “I agree, but it’s so hard to tell a guy that loves bike racing, loves winning, not to do that. It’s like telling Messi not to score goals.”

EF Education–EasyPost boss Jonathan Vaughters, back on The Breakaway as a special guest, said he would not have approached the Tour in the same manner in UAE’s position.

“If you didn’t know how Pogacar was coming in, ideally your tactic would be as low-key, as below the radar as you possibly could. But it’s just so much Pogacar’s style [to attack],” he said.

Vaughters also revealed that his EF team had crunched the data on Vingegaard’s climb.

“Vingegaard’s average power in that 20-minute period would have been, from our calculations, just shy of seven watts per kilogram,” he said.

“You normally don’t get numbers that big in the Tour de France. Pogacar can grab all the bonus seconds he wants, you’re not going to touch someone who is able to produce power output like that.”

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