UAE Team Emirates-XRG management have argued that even if Tadej Pogačar was surprisingly caught by Enric Mas (Movistar) on stage 6 of the Vuelta a España, he was able to use that to his advantage so that the two could gain time on the rest of the field.
Mas tracked down Pogacar on the Puerto de El Bartolo climb after the Vuelta leader had broken away four kilometres to the summit.
The highly unusual scenario of Pogačar being reeled in by another GC contender – which last happened in a Grand Tour in Le Lioran in the 2024 Tour de France – did not end in his defeat, though, as the Slovenian star outpowered Mas at the finish for the stage win.
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Unexpected as it was that Pogačar should be caught, UAE Team Emirates-XRG underlined that there was nothing unusual going on with the Slovenian, who still now amassed a total of three stage wins, the leader’s jersey since day one and the mountains and points lead as well.
An unexpected lack of information created an unusual scenario of Pogačar finishing with a rival, rather than alone as is usually the case.
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However, after the Slovenian all but fell on the descent, the team were simply relieved he was unscathed and uninjured after what could have been a very serious accident.
“What happened was we were told over race radio [on the Bartolo] that Tadej was alone and that the Roglič [closest chase] group was at 53 seconds,” UAE team boss Joxean Fernández Matxin told reporters.
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“We gave him that information and then suddenly we saw that Enric Mas was there with him, we didn’t know that Enric was so close.
“Then he hadn’t done the recon of the descent because what he did between the Tour and the Vuelta was rest and train. He’d seen videos but obviously that’s not always the same.
“We’d been down the descent, but not with the new tarmac and that changed things, too. So when he went off the road, we had a big shock.”
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“We told him not to take any risks at all, because there was barely half a metre between the side of the road and the main drop. You could see on the way up on the climb it wasn’t easy, that there was a big drop, too.”
That the two were then able to collaborate to gain 46 seconds, plus time bonuses on their rivals and that Pogačar could then take the win made the day a success story in many ways, Matxin argued.
“They both had good reasons to work together. I don’t know if they talked together, but they could get time on their rivals. Both for Mas and Tadej, that was good.
“Rather than time, in any case, our main idea was to drop as many riders as possible so that he would be able to do a really dangerous ascent and descent as safely as possible.”
“It wouldn’t have been the same if he had had to go down the descent with 20 or 30 guys all looking for the stage win. It was a question of the fewer riders, the safer.”
Matxin had not expected that Pogačar would have been able to win, given there were so many riders in the break of the day – 16 – “and the logical thing is that they should have got five minutes.” Instead, UAE were able to turn the tables on that situation and put Pogačar in a position to go for the victory.
“I don’t know if they stopped collaborating or what happened, but we did the climb with Jay [Vine] and Pablo [Torres]. We certainly didn’t expect to get to the foot of the climb with less than a minute on the break ahead.”
Pogačar has now clinched a third victory, and his overall lead has been strengthened against all but one rider. As Matxin agreed, if that constitutes a bad day for the maillot rojo, looking at the results sheet, it’s hard to see why it should be considered that way.
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