Great moment of fright on the 11th stage of the Tour de France: Shortly before the finish, top favorite Tadej Pogacar comes down. The other classification drivers do not take the opportunity and neutralize their races. Vingegaard-Eedelhelfer Matteo Jorgenson cannot help but a little joke after the target.
Great happiness in misfortune for Tadej Pogacar: Except for a few abrasions and bruises, the Slovenian got away lightly during his fall on the 11th stage of the Tour de France. “I’m ok. I’m a bit struck, but we have had worse days,” said the UAE captain about the much-discussed scene, which he himself described as an unfortunate racing accident.
The 26-year-old expressly welcomed the fact that the other classification drivers did not take the opportunity to win Pogacar for a few seconds. “The race was more or less over at the time, but they could still have taken time to me. Maybe not too much, but I should have invested a lot to get back,” he pulled his hat off to the competition.
Vingegaard helper countered Pogacar’s allegations
Jonas Vingegaard belongs to the said competition. The Dane was also in Pogacar’s group. But he also waived a start and took his legs up to wait for his big rival. A fair play gesture that led his teammate Matteo Jorgenson to a joking side blow towards UAE and Pogacar.
“I heard a crash. It happened right behind me. Then we decided to wait. It was the sporty decision,” said Jorgenson at the “NOS” microphone.
With Jorgenson of all people, Pogacar had delivered a small tech meter in the catering zone a few days earlier on the 7th stage. The Slovenian then accused Visma a dirty tactic to get it out of the concept. Jorgenson said on Wednesday: Now it is clear that the UAE driver was wrong.
“After all, according to the allegations of unsportsmanlike from the past few weeks, he can now trust us that we want to beat him with sporting means,” joked the Visma driver.
“I hope you don’t get too much crap”
Tobias Halland Johannessen, who was responsible for the fall, apologized to Pogacar after the end of the race and said it was not his intention to bring the Slovenia down. When he suddenly moved to the right, he had touched the Slovenian’s front wheel, which afterwards had no chance of staying on the bike.
Pogacar accepted the apology and answered a social media post by the Norwegers in the evening with the words. “Hey man, no stress, everything is good. I hope you don’t get too much crap. Stop it, people! It was a racing accident. We continue!”