{"id":821628,"date":"2026-07-23T21:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T21:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/821628\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T21:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T21:12:12","slug":"you-have-to-ride-more-on-instinct-pogacar-on-depleted-uae-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/821628\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018You have to ride more on instinct:\u2019 Poga\u010dar on depleted UAE Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tadej Poga\u010dar may still be firmly in control of the Tour de France, but the yellow jersey admitted his UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad is far from full strength heading into the race\u2019s final mountain tests.<\/p>\n

Stage 18 recap<\/p>\n

Stage 18 passed without any major attacks among the overall contenders, but it wasn\u2019t an easy day for the race leader. American teammate Brandon McNulty was forced to abandon after falling ill, leaving Poga\u010dar with one fewer key domestique for the closing stages. EF Education First\u2019s Richard Carapaz<\/a> took a lovely solo win.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a relatively calm day for me, but we lost Brandon as a team,\u201d Poga\u010dar said after the finish in a post-race interview<\/a>. \u201cHe got sick, and I hope he\u2019s okay again for the celebrations in Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sitch at UAE<\/p>\n

McNulty\u2019s departure adds to a growing list of concerns for UAE. Adam Yates has been battling illness in recent days, Tim Wellens has also been under the weather, and Florian Vermeersch is continuing to manage an injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s annoying to lose Brandon. He was a very useful rider for us,\u201d Poga\u010dar said. \u201cAdam is gradually getting better. He didn\u2019t have to do too much today or yesterday. He suffered, but he\u2019s better than he was a few days ago. I hope he\u2019ll be ready for Saturday because it will be important to have a strong team.\u201d<\/p>\n

With several teammates less than 100 per cent, Poga\u010dar acknowledged his approach to racing may have to change. During Stage 18, UAE allowed Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe to control much of the pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow I race depends on the situation,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the riders don\u2019t recover from illness, you don\u2019t always know what to do. You have to ride more on instinct. But I believe everything will be fine, and we\u2019ll get through the next few days.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next few days at the Toure France<\/p>\n

There are still two mega stages to come. Thursday was really just an appetizer for what\u2019s ahead. Granted, the world champion holds a comfortable lead overall, so he doesn\u2019t need to attack. But with a depleted squad, controlling the race becomes much more difficult. Thankfully for Poga\u010dar, once the road turns uphill, team strength matters a little less.<\/p>\n

And there is plenty of climbing still to come.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s 127.9-km stage runs from Gap to Alpe d\u2019Huez, featuring three categorized climbs, including the hors cat\u00e9gorie summit finish on the iconic climb.<\/p>\n

Stage 20 starts in Le Bourg-d\u2019Oisans, climbs the Croix de Fer, Col du T\u00e9l\u00e9graphe, Col du Galibier and Col de Sarenne, before finishing on Alpe d\u2019Huez. This time, however, the riders will approach the famous resort from the back side via Sarenne before joining the final kilometres to the summit.<\/p>\n

Even though Saturday\u2019s finish isn\u2019t as demanding as Friday\u2019s, the stage still features two hors cat\u00e9gorie climbs and a Category 1 ascent\u2014more than enough terrain to shatter the peloton and test whatever strength Poga\u010dar\u2019s team has left.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tadej Poga\u010dar may still be firmly in control of the Tour de France, but the yellow jersey admitted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[112150,49,48,635,82,1422,129545],"class_list":["post-821628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2026-tour-de-france","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821628","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=821628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}