{"id":786279,"date":"2026-07-07T15:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T15:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/786279\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T15:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T15:13:10","slug":"we-have-to-question-the-common-sense-of-that-tadej-pogacar-and-uaes-breakaway-killing-tactics-criticised-in-french-tv-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/786279\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We have to question the common sense of that’ \u2013 Tadej Poga\u010dar and UAE’s breakaway-killing tactics criticised in French TV debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s victory on stage 3 of the Tour de France<\/a> has raised familiar concerns over his dominance of the race and the sport, with several pundits questioning the wisdom of he and his team\u2019s tactics on Monday.<\/p>\n

Stage 3 looked like a surefire breakaway day, but after a mammoth battle to form an escape, it was kept on a short leash by Visma-Lease a Bike before Poga\u010dar\u2019s UAE Team Emirates\u2019 men buried themselves to chase it down and set up a sprint from a reduced peloton.<\/p>\n

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Poga\u010dar duly delivered, claiming his 22nd Tour de France stage victory and wrestling the yellow jersey back<\/a> from Jonas Vingegaard but there was a sense of dejection among the breakaway hopefuls, who sensed that once again they\u2019ll be feeding off scraps in this Tour.<\/p>\n

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That feeling was felt keenly in the studio of the home nation\u2019s host broadcaster France T\u00e9l\u00e9visions, where discussion of UAE\u2019s tactics dominated the post-stage V\u00e9lo Club show on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepulsed is a little strong maybe,\u201d said former pro Yoann Offredo, who settled on \u201cit didn\u2019t please me\u201d, as his overarching feeling on the matter.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe scene was so well set, we had the possibility of a Frenchman in yellow in Alex Baudin, we had all that work from TotalEnergies, who did an incredible race, with Matt\u00e9o Vercher doing a crazy race. These are riders who have enormous potential and they are left with zero metres,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, in sport the goal of cycling is to win, but their demonstration of force \u2013 yesterday when Poga\u010dar gifted the victory to Isaac del Toro and now with the victory of Poga\u010dar – honestly did not please me. They have the biggest budget and the best riders, so it\u2019s logical but it doesn\u2019t please me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Poga\u010dar has not been entirely cannibalistic at this Tour, notably slowing up in the stage 2 finale to allow his younger teammate Del Toro to taste a first Tour de France stage victory<\/a>. However, there were question marks over the rewards of his victory on stage 3 \u2013 which yielded six seconds over key rival Jonas Vingegaard \u2013 compared to the risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have every right to want to win, and they have the means to do so, but beyond that I don\u2019t see what purpose it really serves,\u201d said former yellow jersey wearer and 4th place finisher Thomas Voeckler.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s big chance Poga\u010dar wins the stage at the end, but what use is it to burn through so many teammates? It was hard stage, it was fast, there are three weeks left\u2026 I didn\u2019t understand this need to ride behind the breakaway.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think it\u2019s a strategic error. Because wanted to win, he put all his teammates to work and that could come back around in the third week. He is a super champion, he has a lot of panache, he is great for cycling, but we still have to question the common sense of that in a three-week race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laurent Jalabert was less critical than Voeckler and Offredo, simply seeing Poga\u010dar\u2019s appetite as a fact of life \u2013 \u201cI think he dreams at night about winning races, and when he wakes up he says \u2018I will win today\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the former Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a winner did issue a warning of his own in relation to Poga\u010dar\u2019s perceived hogging of the spoils.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe day when he has his wings clipped or he has a tough moment, he can\u2019t expect help from whoever else,\u201d Jalabert said.<\/p>\n

What was Poga\u010dar\u2019s response, and what do his rivals think?<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar<\/a> was invited into the V\u00e9lo Club studio, where these points were put directly to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how to reply to this. I don\u2019t know how long I can keep defending this jersey \u2013 this might be the last day, you never know. You need to enjoy the moment,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re here to win, and everyone would do the same, I think. There\u2019s still a long way to Paris, and you never know what happens, so you have to race in the moment. You can\u2019t have a Playstation and say \u2018we\u2019ll take all the time in the final week\u2019. If you have good legs you have to use them.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for his rivals, there may have been a sense of disappointment and dejection, but it seems there are no hard feelings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a shame they didn\u2019t let the breakaway go \u2013 it was a good chance for them \u2013 but as Tadej said, if you have the chance to win you shouldn\u2019t pass it up,\u201d said Remco Evenepoel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a whole squad of riders who can win stages and even Grand Tours, so why would they leave things for others? When you\u2019re strong, you should take advantage,\u201d said Netcompany-Ineos\u2019 Kevin Vauquelin.<\/p>\n

And Raul Garc\u00eda Pierna summed it up on behalf of all the breakaway hopefuls in this Tour de France: \u201cThere\u2019s nothing to be done except to try again and wait for the day they don\u2019t want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s biggest bike race deserves world-class coverage. Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our unrivalled reporting of the 2026 Tour de France. From Barcelona through to Paris, our experienced team will bring you breaking news, expert insight, and in-depth coverage from every stage as the battle for the yellow jersey plays out. Plus, access the Cyclingnews app to follow the action on the go! Find out more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s victory on stage 3 of the Tour de France has raised familiar concerns over his dominance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-786279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}