{"id":13053,"date":"2025-07-21T13:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T13:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/13053\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T13:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T13:38:10","slug":"tour-de-france-2025-tadej-pogacar-and-wout-van-aert-engage-in-war-of-words-over-stage-15-controversy-they-did-exactly-the-same","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/13053\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour de France 2025: Tadej Pogacar and Wout van Aert engage in war of words over Stage 15 controversy – ‘They did exactly the same’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A war of words has erupted between Tour de France<\/a> riders Tadej Pogacar [UAE Emirates-XRG] and Wout van Aert [Visma-Lease a Bike] after a controversial encounter during Stage 15<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pogacar believes Visma-Lease a Bike riders were wrong to attack while his closest competitor for the yellow jersey, Jonas Vingegaard [Visma], was lagging behind his teammates.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old is currently leading the way in the general classification ahead of a mouth-watering Stage 16.<\/p>\n

Vingegaard is four minutes and 13 seconds behind his rival in second place, and Pogacar suggested that the Dane\u2019s team prioritised winning Stage 16 over his GC hopes.<\/p>\n

“There was a moment when many GC riders – including Jonas – were falling behind,” he told Dutch outlet Wielerflits.<\/p>\n

“And yet there were three Visma riders up front.<\/p>\n

“Tim and I tried to calm things down so Jonas and the other GC riders could get back, but suddenly Wout van Aert went off, followed by Victor Campenaerts and Matteo Jorgenson.<\/p>\n

\"picture\"<\/p>\n

Breakaway crew on Alaphilippe\u2019s \u2018embarrassing\u2019 celebration moment on Stage 15<\/p>\n

Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n

“I didn’t know what to think. I just joined the group so they couldn’t break away together. Maybe I helped Jonas with that? I thought it was a strange situation.”<\/p>\n

“If I were in Jonas’s position, I wouldn’t be the happiest at the dinner table tonight. Because I still think he can win the Tour. He’s second in the general classification and showed on Saturday that he’s in fantastic shape.<\/p>\n

“I understand they want to win stages, but they can also win the general classification in the Tour. I don’t know. But I wouldn’t be the happiest.”<\/p>\n

Van Aert was one of the Visma riders who attacked during an exciting start to Stage 15.<\/p>\n

However, he has not taken Pogacar\u2019s comments lying down, suggesting that UAE have done exactly the same thing in the past.<\/p>\n

“Luckily, it doesn\u2019t bother me and neither does anyone else in the group,” he responded.<\/p>\n

“At least, I don\u2019t get that feeling. But it\u2019s quite funny that Tadej says it.<\/p>\n

“It was also very clear that UAE Emirates XRG wanted Tim Wellens in the breakaway. They did exactly the same.<\/p>\n

“And when I look back at that situation with Jonas\u2019 crash, I think the solution would have been really simple. With 25 riders, we tried to get into the breakaway.<\/p>\n

“If Tadej had simply dropped back into the group Jonas was in, that would have been truly sporting. Now he’s complaining about something that isn’t there. We simply wanted to race for the stage win.<\/p>\n

“Everyone who was there at that moment was there to be in the breakaway. I think that’s a perfectly normal thing.”<\/p>\n

Stream the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes live on TNT Sports and discovery+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A war of words has erupted between Tour de France riders Tadej Pogacar [UAE Emirates-XRG] and Wout van…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,8782,6549,56,54,55,8783],"class_list":["post-13053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wout-van-aert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}