‘We will need to survive as well as possible’ – Tour de France leader Tadej Pogačar hints at quiet start to tough trio of climbing stages in race

“Tomorrow is a bit of a weird stage, it’s very long, so it’s going to be a hard day for us as a team, I think,” he said of the 205.8 kilometre day. It is the longest of the entire race and the only one over the psychological barrier of 200, too.

Latest Videos From

“We will need to survive as well as possible.”

Given the blistering mountain performances produced by Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates-XRG both on stage 6 across the Col du Tourmalet and then again to Le Lioran on stage 10, the Slovenian’s more detached attitude to the first day in the Vosges may be greeted with some incredulity by his rivals.

You may like

However, Pogačar is far from being the only voice in the peloton expecting that the ‘one and a half’ climbs he referred to – the category 3 Col des Croix and the cat. 1 Ballon d’Alsace – will not see any GC action, at least on UAE’s part.

“Saturday and Sunday are the bigger days for the GC. Tomorrow, we will see what happens. But it would be best for us to save some energy for Saturday and Sunday,” Pogačar pointed out.

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!

When it was mentioned to him by a journalist that Eddy Merckx had taken his first yellow jersey and stage win at the summit of the Ballon d’Alsace in the 1969 Tour, the Slovenian seemed bemused rather than, as perhaps was being hinted, in any way keen to follow Merckx’s example.

“Thank you for the fun fact. I didn’t know, it’s a good fact, but it’s a fun fact, so I learned something new, thank you,” Pogačar said simply.

As for his 62nd day in yellow on Thursday, Pogačar ranked fiftieth on the stage after the bunch was partly blocked on the run-in to Chalon-sur-Saône due to a late mass crash. However, as the crash was well within the five-kilometre ‘safety zone’, taking place within sight of the finishing gantries, no time losses were awarded as a result of the numerous gaps created by the pile-up.

What to read next

Pogačar said his day had generally been a good one and that “it was all calm and good until Trek started to attack” – with 30 kilometres to go – “then harder in the final, all good on our side, I think.”