Tour de France 2021 - 'A small sign of weakness' - Tadej Pogacar's Stage 11 climb struggles give rivals hope
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Updated 07/07/2021 at 20:39 GMT
"Other teams will be thinking there is one rider who has proven better on a climb today than Tadej Pogacar - which we haven’t seen so far". The Breakaway team ponder whether Tadej Pogacar is starting to feel the heat despite his Tour de France dominance to date. You can watch the Tour de France live and ad-free on the Eurosport app and Eurosport.co.uk.
'We're thinking we've got a race on' - Dan Lloyd on Pogacar climb struggles
Tadej Pogacar may have retained his grip on the yellow jersey but may have given his rivals a glimmer of hope of chasing him down after his struggles on Stage 11 of the Tour de France.
The UAE Team Emirates star seemed to struggle on the second climb of the gruelling Mont Ventoux and was distanced by potential General Classification rival Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma).
Pogacar trailed Vingegaard by 20 seconds going over the final summit and was caught by fellow GC hopefuls Rigoberto Uran (EF Education - Nippo) and Richard Carapaz on the descent.
However, the trio reeled in the Dane in the closing staging and the defending champions led the quartet over the line to claim a fourth place finish behind Stage winner Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Trek-Segafredo duo Kenny Elissonde and Bauke Mollema.
Speaking on the Breakaway, Dan Lloyd feels his display on the day may given the rest of the teams hope for the remainder of the race.
“Realistically, Tadej Pocagar did show a sign of weakness today,” said Orla Chennaoui.
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“But he still rode back and managed to conserve his lead while disposing of Ben O’Connor along the way”
To which Lloyd added: “He looked so comfortable all the way up the climb and even when Vingegaard attacked, he just sat in the saddle and took him a few peddle rows to get out of the saddle and chase him down.
Then we started to see a little bit of a grimace and then he was distanced.
“So yeah, it’s just a small sign of weakness but it seems like such a strange thing to say isn’t it? Effectively, Pogacar’s lead has gone from 02’01” to 5’18” and we’re here thinking we’ve got a race on.
“But the other teams will be thinking, well there is one rider who has proven better on a climb today than Tadej Pogacar today, which we haven’t seen so far and Jumbo-Visma in particular.”
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'I had to stay calm' - Pogacar on Mount Ventoux climb difficulties
Asked about his troubles on the climb, last year’s champion admitted he was struggling but was pleased that he was able to recover.
"It was a hard pace the whole climb,” he revealed.
“When Vingegaard attacked, I couldn't follow all the way up, it was just a little bit too much.
"I had to stay calm, and just find a new rhythm. I knew it wasn’t very long to the top.
"I set my pace and tried to finish at the top with good legs to push downhill and I managed to end well. It was a good day."
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