‘We wanted to calm things down’ – UAE team management justify the decision to keep Tour de France stage 9 break on ultra-tight leash

Rather, he said, the short, intense nature of the very hilly stage had given ground to multiple attacks, and UAE’s high pace was designed to try and stop them.

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The close nature of the pursuit saw the gap reduced to well under a minute at times, and by the finish, after other squads had begun to provide extra support, had been reduced to a scant six seconds.

That was still enough for Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) to win the stage, but far from sufficient to stop the questions about why UAE had chased so hard on what was theoretically a transition day, one where traditionally the leader’s team lets other squads with no interest in the GC battle grab their share of the limelight.

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“There were lots of attacks during the day, we had to keep the speed as high as we could and calm things down,” Gianetti told reporters at the line.

“Finally other teams came in as well and started to push hard as well. It was a very nice stage, everybody worked very hard and collaborated well in the break, and Van der Poel really deserved the victory.”

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Asked specifically about Lidl-Trek, currently leading the teams classification by more than 27 minutes on UAE, he said, “No, we were not chasing; we were just making a good pace. When we slowed down a little bit, everybody was attacking again, so it was necessary to have a good pace and slowly, slowly let go the break.

“But one moment when we let go the break, other teams decided to work hard, so it was an amazing result.”

The plan was not to go for the stage, he said, “because we knew from the start of the day it would be a very complicated day and many riders would want to go in the break and fight for the victory, especially good riders with qualities on the climb.”

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“This is why we were on the front, trying to calm things down, but if we go too slow, nobody will come because they cannot attack. For us, it would have been good for them to get more than a minute and then things calm down. But when our boys slowed, they started either to attack or pull. So we continued to pull.”

Pogačar himself referred to the UAE strategy, denying – like Gianetti – that their interest was in taking the stage win, rather it was more that other teams had begun to ask them to provide some kind of support.

Pogačar was replying to questions about how he was seen talking to Filippo Ganna (Netcompany Ineos), who did not have a rider in the break, and what the significance was of that particular conversation.

“I will be honest, we didn’t plan to catch the break, but we were riding a bit at Tim Wellens’ pace, and he was feeling good,” the four-times Tour winner explained.

“We saw other teams had the ambition to win, and people came to me and asked is there any chance if we can help a bit with one rider.”

“I asked [the sports directors] on the radio; they said – ‘just don’t overdo it’, so yeah, we helped a little bit until more Ineos and Trek came, and then we didn’t need to commit too much. In the last 50 kilometres, we could rest a bit.”

While stage winner Van der Poel later said that he did not understand UAE’s tactics, he did recognise that having such an intense pursuit finally helped the break to race more cohesively together. But it also sparked a talking point that will continue to reverberate throughout the second week, when breakaways will be even more of the order of the day than on stage 9 – and as the dominating team in this year’s race, UAE’s attitude will continue to be closely scrutinised, too.