Pogačar lets fly after race jury strips Dutch champion Danny Van Poppel of stage victory
Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was relegated after deviating inside the final 100 meters (Photo: Christian Kaspar-Bartke/Getty Images)
Updated August 23, 2025 02:36PM
He’s not taking part in the race, but that hasn’t stopped Tadej Pogačar from blasting the decision to relegate a rider at the end of stage 3 of the Deutschland Tour.
Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) finished well clear at the end of Saturday’s stage of the race, outsprinting Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) and Emilien Jeannière (Team TotalEnergies) plus the rest of the reduced main bunch to the line.
However the Dutch champion was relegated to last in his group by the race jury, which ruled he deviated from a straight line.
Wærenskjold said that he agreed. “I’ve seen the footage. I think it is the right decision,” he said in the post race interview. “But it’s not the way I want to win. He was the strongest one but he didn’t keep the line. If he just kept the line he would have won either way.”
However Pogačar was clearly unimpressed with the jury’s ruling.
“The clear winner of today’s stage,” he wrote on social media, posting a photo of Van Poppel crossing the line.
“These relegations are absolute jokes and not correct, job done poorly… like so many times this year,” he stated. “Congrats, Danny van Poppel, you won.”
Pogačar recently won his fourth Tour (Photo: Yoan Valat – Pool/Getty Images)
He elaborated on his statement, suggesting others were also at fault.
“Don’t get me wrong. If they are relegating riders here, they can relegate 4 to 5 riders,” he stated. “Look [at] all the pictures. Peace out.”
Pogačar is currently taking a break from competition after his Tour de France win. He will return to action in the upcoming Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal events.