{"id":824882,"date":"2026-07-26T12:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T12:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/824882\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T12:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T12:23:10","slug":"ex-pro-zonneveld-suspects-deal-between-pogacar-and-red-bull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/824882\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-pro Zonneveld suspects deal between Poga\u010dar and Red Bull"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s teamwork has generated a surprising amount of media attention. The yellow jersey wearer decided to sacrifice his chance at a stage win to support his teammate Isaac Del Toro during the 20th stage<\/a> of the Tour de France. Some didn\u2019t think much of this move<\/a>, while others felt it showed true class. According to Thijs Zonneveld<\/a>, it means something entirely different.After his victory on Alpe d’Huez, Poga\u010dar had already said he would work<\/a> to secure Del Toro\u2019s spot on the podium. He kept his word and began his effort on the Col du Galibier, crossing the finish line sixty kilometers later alongside the Mexican, one minute behind stage winner Richard Carapaz. Remco Evenepoel<\/a> finished second, but Pogacar did not respond to his surge.According to Zonneveld, that says it all. The Slovenian rider from UAE Team Emirates-XRG had a lead of more than seven minutes over the Belgian, so he had plenty of room to maneuver. \u201cI think you can also see today that he doesn\u2019t view Evenepoel as a real competitor,\u201d he says on his podcast In de Waaier<\/a>. \u201cThat makes it a bizarre spectacle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dutch ex-pro and analyst isn’t really a fan of the move. The Slovenian crossed the finish line laughing and hugging Del Toro, while all his competitors were completely wiped out\u2014thanks in part to his efforts. It was humiliating, Zonneveld says. \u201cI find the successful record attempt on Alpe d\u2019Huez less humiliating for his competitors than what he showed today, or on the Plateau de Solaison.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"del-toro-pogacar\"\/Zonneveld saw his rivals, including Poga\u010dar, as “glamourised cycling tourists”<\/p>\n

On the Col du Galibier, Poga\u010dar had already dropped everyone except Evenepoel, Del Toro, Paul Seixas, and Lenny Martinez. A small group caught up on the descent, but on the Col de Sarenne, he picked up the pace again. Decathlon CMA CGM wanted to take over the work, but they were met with a stern glare from Pogacar. \u201cThen they\u2019re just a bunch of glorified cycling tourists who are allowed to ride in his slipstream\u2014and definitely aren\u2019t allowed to attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pogacar as a domestique\u2014it\u2019s something we\u2019ve never seen before. Why was he willing to ride for his team this time? \u201cThat\u2019s because Vingegaard isn\u2019t here,\u201d Zonneveld analyses. Even though he\u2019s minutes ahead of Vingegaard, he\u2019s someone he wouldn\u2019t want to see succeed. No agreements were made with him. It was pretty clear that a deal had been struck with Red Bull, whether it was written or unwritten.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the video!<\/p>\n

A deal between Red Bull and Poga\u010dar? ‘At Visma, it was all hate and jealousy’<\/p>\n

Those are strong words from the podcaster, who later explains the claim. \u201cEvenepoel won on the Plateau de Solaison; a few days later, Red Bull UAE helped bring the breakaway riders back toward Alpe d\u2019Huez, so that Poga\u010dar could win and set his record.\u201d So that\u2019s why Poga\u010dar didn\u2019t react when Evenepoel broke away again, Zonneveld argues.<\/p>\n

“That’s not the case at Visma; it’s much more about hatred and envy. We saw it last year, too: Poga\u010dar easily won the Tour, but in the final week he was grumpy and angry, and there were riders on his blacklist. It was much more of a rivalry than what we\u2019ve seen this past week. Perhaps tomorrow he\u2019ll feel a rivalry with Van der Poel to win in Paris<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s teamwork has generated a surprising amount of media attention. The yellow jersey wearer decided to sacrifice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,39733,8396,85,6494,178026,346968,19805],"class_list":["post-824882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-red-bull-bora-hansgrohe","tag-remco-evenepoel","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-thijs-zonneveld","tag-tour-de-france-2026","tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}