{"id":2044802,"date":"2026-07-15T11:11:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T08:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2044802"},"modified":"2026-07-15T11:11:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T08:11:33","slug":"rivals-slam-uaes-senseless-energy-spending-tactics-and-pogacar-dominance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2044802","title":{"rendered":"Rivals Slam UAE\u2019s Senseless, Energy-Spending Tactics and Poga\u010dar Dominance"},"content":{"rendered":"
Four stage wins out of 10 on offer for UAE Emirates-XRG. Five days in the yellow jersey. A comprehensive lead of 3 minutes 36 seconds for Tadej Poga\u010dar as the 2026 Tour de France passes its halfway stage Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The gluttons for glory are leaving few crumbs this July. Fans are starting to boo from the roadside and the peloton frustration is showing, too. Rival team managers are sounding off about their dominance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are also other unwritten rules that should be respected. Everyone has their own point of view, but for me, it does [cycling a disservice],\u201d Movistar sports director Jos\u00e9 Joaquin Rojas told Spanish news agency EFE<\/i>. \u201cI think that in the end it ruins part of the spectacle because the beauty of cycling is having battles for different objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Matteo Jorgenson and Derek Gee-West have suggested that another reason for their hard-riding, beyond winning a fifth Tour title Poga\u010dar and supporting Isaac del Toro in the fight for the white jersey of best young rider, is to win the team classification.<\/p>\n
They want it all.<\/p>\n
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Speaking about their stage nine display Sunday where the Slovenian star\u2019s team chased an all-star breakaway hard to the point winner Mathieu van der Poel was within sight at the finish, Rojas added: \u201cI did not understand anything UAE did. I talk with 85 percent of the directors, and they all think the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Spanish team manager believes the Tour is already decided.<\/p>\n
Stage 10 on Tuesday was another case of UAE Emirates-XRG not letting any escape get significant freedom on Bastille Day before Poga\u010dar delivered the killer blow.<\/p>\n
45 seconds\u2019 lead gone in one kilometer for Carapaz<\/h2>\nClose, but no stage win for Richard Carapaz, despite his exciting Bastille Day breakaway. Photo: Gruber Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The man who came closest to springing a surprise was EF Education-EasyPost rider Richard Carapaz, with an enterprising move up the road on the Puy Mary, 38 kilometers from the finish in Le Lioran.<\/p>\n
Sat in the shade of his team car post-race, head sports director Charly Wegelius was acceptant of what had happened. They were pursuing a \u201cthird path\u201d to a stage win, he explained to Velo<\/em>, by taking their chance, not counting on an early breakaway going away or a Poga\u010dar solo victory.<\/p>\n
Before the first-category Puy Mary, he told Carapaz that if he had the legs, this was the climb and the time to go up the road: \u201cBecause the other [next] one\u2019s too hard and we had a chance to move before UAE were using Yates, McNulty and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n
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It looked like the pink-clad pedaller had a chance of a thrilling stage win as he gained over a minute\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n
However, his 45-second advantage evaporated in one kilometer after Poga\u010dar\u2019s devastating attack to victory on stage 10\u2019s penultimate climb, the Col de Pertus.<\/p>\n
Wegelius: \u2018Forget the idea of gifts\u2019 in pro cycling<\/h2>\n
\u201cWe did everything we could,\u201d Wegelius said. \u201cAt this stage, I think we\u2019ve seen enough that no-one can be surprised [by Poga\u010dar and UAE\u2019s tactics]. Of course, you have to take it into account.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Wegelius will not accept his team failing to try to win, despite the growing inevitability of the Slovenian\u2019s success.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s obviously many days, many race situations where the fact that a third party might step in later and close the race down means you need to take the chances you have.\u201d<\/p>\n
What does Wegelius make of his peer Rojas\u2019 statement that UAE Emirates-XRG are doing a disservice to cycling and of their dominance?<\/p>\n
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\u201cI think we should forget the idea of gifts,\u201d Wegelius says. \u201cYou can make a convincing argument for either version of it. If I had Poga\u010dar in our team, or I was Poga\u010dar, would I want to win every single race that I could? Of course.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo should they not try and win now? They want to win, quite rightly, so they\u2019re obviously taking every chance they can to do it. It\u2019s a race, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n
UAE chasing team classification, too<\/h2>\n
\u201cThe only viewpoint I have is that they spend a lot of energy,\u201d Wegelius added. \u201cSo that\u2019s their choice, their tactic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps it is all part of their talked-about team classification quest. After all, \u201cPogi\u201d domestiques Florian Vermeersch and Tim Wellens confirmed to Belgian newspaper HLN<\/em> that they are \u201cquietly going for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The secret is out. Clearly, cycling\u2019s dominant team wants it all, but this is a rare competition in which they have to play a lot of catch-up: Lidl-Trek have a 24-minute lead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2285425319.jpg”] Andy McGrath Updated July 15, 2026 05:27AM Four stage wins out of 10 on offer for UAE Emirates-XRG. Five days in the yellow jersey. A comprehensive lead of 3 minutes 36 seconds for Tadej Poga\u010dar as the 2026 Tour de France passes its halfway stage Wednesday. The gluttons for glory are leaving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2044802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2044802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2044802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2044802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2044802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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