{"id":700922,"date":"2026-07-20T03:28:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T03:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/700922\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T03:28:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T03:28:22","slug":"i-asked-him-if-he-believed-in-the-breakaway-today-and-he-said-maybe-not-tobias-johannessen-reveals-tadej-pogacars-spot-on-prophecy-ahead-of-stage-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/700922\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI asked him if he believed in the breakaway today, and he said, \u2018Maybe not\u2019\u201d: Tobias Johannessen reveals Tadej Pogacar’s spot-on prophecy ahead of stage 14"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\u201cI talked with Pogacar at the start,\u201d Johannessen said after the finish<\/a>. \u201cI asked him if he believed in the breakaway today, and he said, \u2018Maybe not.\u2019\u201dThe Slovenian’s prediction turned out to be spot on. UAE Team Emirates – XRG<\/a> kept the breakaway under tight control throughout the stage, never allowing the advantage to grow much beyond three minutes.<\/p>\n

That did not stop Johannessen from trying. He attacked as part of a 37-rider move on the Grand Ballon, with his twin brother Anders joining him. \u201cWe just agreed to force our way through the stage,\u201d Tobias said. \u201cI\u2019m really proud to be up there with my twin brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anders played a crucial supporting role, doing much of the work in the valley before the Col du Haag to keep the breakaway alive. \u201cHe was so strong pulling in the last valley,\u201d Tobias explained. \u201cI think he matched the UAE guys quite well.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Anders emptied himself for his brother, Johannessen pressed on alongside Richard Carapaz<\/a>. The Ecuadorian launched an aggressive attack as the Col du Haag steepened, but Johannessen resisted the temptation to follow immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was strong, of course, and he rides quite aggressively, so he went full gas,\u201d Johannessen said. \u201cI just kept my pace, and I managed to get him back. When the group came, they just went a bit too fast for me. Chapeau to him and all the other guys who went ballistic on the last climb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although disappointed not to reach the finish ahead of the favorites, the Norwegian remained optimistic for the stages ahead. \u201cWe\u2019re a bit disappointed that we didn\u2019t go all the way to the finish,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we\u2019re going to try again. I think we showed that we are capable of good things.\u201d<\/p>\n

And despite Pogacar correctly predicting the outcome, Johannessen joked he has no intention of changing his routine. \u201cI\u2019m going to ask him every day,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to keep trying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Captura<\/p>\n

Pogacar won stage 14 of the 2026 Tour de France<\/p>\n

Combativity prize for Carapaz<\/p>\n

Carapaz, meanwhile, was rewarded with the combativity prize after spending most of the day on the attack. The EF Education-EasyPost leader admitted the breakaway always faced an uphill battle once UAE kept the gap under control.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very active from the start because we knew it was a great opportunity to fight for the stage win,\u201d Carapaz said after the finish. \u201cOn the final climb, we realized I only had a one-minute lead over the peloton and understood that this stage would be decided among the general classification contenders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite missing out on victory, the Ecuadorian was encouraged by his improving condition. \u201cThe result is what it is; we gave it our all and we’re proud of our performance. For me, this stage was a positive one. We fought to the very end to take the victory\u2026 but the race was very difficult. The tension was palpable from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m happy with my performance because my legs are getting better every day and that motivates me. The crowd was incredible. Especially on the final climb, where the energy of the people was palpable. The support of the fans is essential for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cI talked with Pogacar at the start,\u201d Johannessen said after the finish. \u201cI asked him if he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,110700,101,8782,128462,12183,56,54,55,119291],"class_list":["post-700922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-richard-carapaz","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tobias-johannessen","tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-uno-x-mobility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700922","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=700922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}