{"id":799469,"date":"2026-07-13T16:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T16:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/799469\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T16:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T16:53:11","slug":"movistar-criticise-uae-and-pogacars-tactics-at-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/799469\/","title":{"rendered":"Movistar criticise UAE and Poga\u010dar’s tactics at Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

UAE Emirates-XRG controlled the breakaway group <\/a>for much of Sunday\u2019s ninth stage of the Tour de France. This drew criticism from some teams, such as Movistar. They had Pablo Castrillo<\/a> in the early breakaway, and after the stage, he was also critical of the hard work put in by the team of yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogacar<\/a>.Castrillo eventually fell behind on the final climb of the stage won by Mathieu van der Poel. \u201cI don\u2019t understand UAE Emirates-XRG\u2019s decision; it makes no sense that they didn\u2019t give the breakaway more space. But we have to accept it\u2014that\u2019s just how it went,\u201d an exhausted Castrillo told AS<\/a> at the finish line.<\/p>\n

“It was a breakaway group that posed no threat; we had to push much harder than necessary, and in the end, that’s why the four riders battling for the win were so exhausted,” said the rider.<\/p>\n

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

\"20260712TDF2119_A.S.O.-Charly<\/p>\n

Pablo Castrillo on the early flight on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Movistar team manager unhappy with UAE Emirates-XRGTeam manager Rojas went a step further in his comments to the Spanish news agency EFE<\/a> on the rest day. “I respect their decision and that of their team, but what happened yesterday was nonsense,” said the former rider. “I didn’t understand anything UAE did. I talk to 85 percent of the team managers, and they all feel the same way.”<\/p>\n

“Yesterday, there was still a 23-kilometer descent to the finish line from the final climb, so it was difficult for Poga\u010dar to win. UAE could have sent a rider to the front to go for the stage win, but they didn\u2019t. UAE can do whatever they want\u2014that\u2019s how it goes in cycling\u2014but there are also unwritten rules that must be respected,\u201d said the Spaniard.<\/p>\n

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

\"uae-emirates-xrg-pogacar-del-toro\"\/<\/p>\n

The UAE is facing criticism in the Tour.<\/p>\n

Rojas: ‘In my opinion, it harms the sport of cycling’<\/p>\n

“Everyone has their own opinion, but in my view, it harms the sport of cycling. I think it ultimately spoils part of the spectacle, because what makes cycling so beautiful is precisely the competition for different goals,” Rojas continues.<\/p>\n

Movistar’s sports director also sees trouble on the horizon for the rest of the race. “The Tour is definitely going Poga\u010dar’s way, and his team is dominating the rest of the riders like we’ve never seen before.”<\/p>\n

“And it’s not just that the Tour is decided\u2014it could very well be that Pogacar wins the stage at Le Lioran, as well as the next mountain stage, the fifteenth (Plateau de Solaison), and the time trial, and the one at Alpe d’Huez…”, he speculates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UAE Emirates-XRG controlled the breakaway group for much of Sunday\u2019s ninth stage of the Tour de France. This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,32792,176308,82,1422,262636,129545],"class_list":["post-799469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-movistar-team","tag-pablo-castrillo","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france-2026","tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799469","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=799469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}