Did Tadej Poga\u010dar\u00a0disrepect the Tour de France peloton when he eased up Sunday and let Isaac del Toro win in Barcelona? Some wondered if he had.<\/p>\n
His direct rivals didn\u2019t see it that way.<\/p>\n
One day after Poga\u010dar passed on a stage victory, time bonuses and perhaps the yellow jersey to give Del Toro his first Tour stage, riders insisted the gesture wasn\u2019t viewed as a snub inside the bunch.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Velo<\/em>, Sepp Kuss of Visma-Lease a Bike said he absolutely undestands the logic behind Poga\u010dar\u2019s generosity.<\/p>\n \u201cPoga\u010dar has won I don\u2019t know how many Tour stages and it\u2019s not going to change his life to win another stage,\u201d Kuss told Velo<\/em>. \u201cIt brings the whole team up so much more to have your strong teammate win.\u201d<\/p>\n Kuss understands how teams that share the spoils can lift everyone inside the bus.<\/p>\n He won the 2023 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a after Visma rallied around him and he\u2019s completed the grand tour stage sweep while working for GC captains.<\/p>\n \u201cDel Toro deserved the win with the finish he did,\u201d Kuss said. \u201cIn the big picture, it\u2019s way more significant than Poga\u010dar winning another stage.\u201d<\/p>\n Cycling has long embraced a \u201cno gifts\u201d culture.<\/p>\n If you have the legs to win, you\u2019re expected to win, or at least that\u2019s what tradition demands.<\/p>\n Easing up before the line or appearing to hand someone a victory, even if it\u2019s a teammate, can be taken as an insult rather than an act of sportsmanship.<\/p>\n Perhaps the sport\u2019s most famous example came on Mont Ventoux in 2000, when Lance Armstrong eased up to let Marco Pantani win. Pantani later bristled at the suggestion that he was given a gift from his bitter rival rather than earning the victory outright.<\/p>\n Of course, the circumstances matter a lot.<\/p>\n Del Toro was a UAE teammate and his victory Sunday wasn\u2019t a pure gift anyway. The 22-year-old attacked first, opened a gap, and the others couldn\u2019t bring him back.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar simply chose not to snatch the stage away in the final meters.<\/p>\n No one in the peloton saw that move as controversial.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, not at all,\u201d Tiesj Benoot (Decathlon-CMA CGM) said when asked if the move could be seen as an insult. \u201cIt\u2019s what they want to do, and Del Toro was the strongest anyway. There was no other rival who was going to beat him.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Kuss, the Belgian veteran saw nothing but upside for Poga\u010dar allowing his teammates get an early taste of success.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s really smart for [Poga\u010dar] to let his teammate win. It\u2019s the smartest thing he can do, because Del Toro is probably the second strongest rider in the Tour,\u201d Benoot said Monday. \u201cSo to do it that way lifts the entire team.\u201d<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar isn\u2019t one of those old-school team captains who insist on winning everything.<\/p>\n The four-time Tour winner has always been generous with his teammates.<\/p>\n Last year, Brandon McNulty won the GP Montr\u00e9al after he and Poga\u010dar arrived together to the line, with the Slovenian letting his American teammate take the biggest one-day win of his career.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar celebrated Del Toro\u2019s as one of his own.<\/p>\n \u201cI think yesterday was one of the highlights of my career,\u201d Poga\u010dar said. \u201cHe\u2019s a teammate and now I consider him a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps the biggest message Sunday is that Poga\u010dar is so confident that he can pass on a stage victory because there are plenty more to come.<\/p>\n In fact, Kuss said Visma-Lease a Bike is already bracing for the 1-2 punch expected to come later in this Tour between Poga\u010dar and Del Toro.<\/p>\n \u201cPoga\u010dar is the big favorite but Del Toro looks super strong and he has a lot of qualities that make him a guy that you have to follow,\u201d Kuss told Velo<\/em>. \u201cIt puts them in a strong position, but we can be confident in the team to take care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar wasted little time reminding everyone who\u2019s the Tour boss, winning Monday\u2019s summit finish to surge back into yellow.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t miss a moment of the Tour de France. Get stage previews, insider recaps, and expert analysis from Velo delivered straight to your inbox with the Velo Tour Daily email newsletter.<\/em><\/p>\nCycling\u2019s unwritten rules are changing<\/h2>\n
\u2018One of highlights of my career\u2019<\/h2>\n
\n