Tadej Pogacar crashed in the finale of the eleventh Tour de France stage but did not lose any time. His rivals in the general classification battle collectively decided to wait for the world champion. According to Matteo Jorgenson, this is a sign that Visma | Lease a Bike wants to compete in a sporting manner, despite Pogacar previously accusing them of unsportsmanlike conduct. Team director Marc Reef and yellow jersey wearer Ben Healy also responded to the respectful moment.
Jorgenson was not far from Pogacar when the Slovenian went down. "I heard a big crash behind me. I don’t think it was directly behind me, but I definitely heard it," the Visma | Lease a Bike domestique told NOS.
For a moment, it seemed Pogacar might lose time, but the group of favorites chose not to increase the pace. "We collectively decided as a group to wait. I think that was the sporting decision," said Jorgenson.
"After the recent controversy where he accused us of unsportsmanlike actions, something I’ve never heard him say before, he can now trust that we want to beat him in a sporting way," the American cautiously took aim at the three-time Tour winner.
Last week was dominated by Pogacar’s accusations towards Visma | Lease a Bike. The leader of UAE Emirates XRG could not understand the Dutch team's tactics and described their race behavior as 'annoying' and 'stupid'.
Team director Marc Reef also observed that the group of favorites did not ride on and decided to wait for Pogacar. But whose idea was it? "From what we saw, it was immediately yellow jersey Ben Healy who took the initiative and gave the signal."
Reef indicated that Visma | Lease a Bike did not lead the group after the crash. To what extent that was a conscious choice, the team director cannot assess. "You would have to ask the riders themselves. Nothing was communicated to them from the team car. We only learned about the incident late through television and radio. So the decision to wait or not was up to the riders themselves."
Yellow jersey holder Healy himself found it more than logical not to continue riding after Pogacar’s crash. "I think everyone rode a bit more calmly after that. If we had been in his position, we would have appreciated that too."
"At the moment of the crash, I was alone in that group, and it was actually pretty clear that everyone wanted to take it easy. When Alex (Baudin, ed.) came back, I just tried to ride calmly until Tadej was back. It was about respecting him," concluded the yellow jersey wearer.
