Tadej Pogacar (United Arab Emirates) thanked this Thursday for all the support received from the Tour de France cyclists, one day after collapsing at Col de la Loze, a failure for which there is still no explanation.
“The beginning was very hard. A bit… not emotional, but a lot of riders came to me. [na partida para a 18.ª etapa] and they spoke to me Thanks to all the cyclists who cheered me on, I ended up recovering a bit from yesterday [quarta-feira]”, highlighted the general runner-up.
Winner of the Tour de France in 2020 and 2021 and runner-up last year, the 24-year-old Slovenian sank on the Col de la Loze on Wednesday, losing almost six minutes to Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), the defending champion. who leads the general with 07.35 minutes of advantage.
“Exactly compared to yesterday, I don’t know. [o que aconteceu]. There is no real explanation. In general, I can be satisfied because I am coming back from an injury. I didn’t train that much,” she recalled.
Pogi was out for almost two months due to a fall at the end of April, in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, in which he fractured his left wrist, having only played in the National Championships of his country, where he won the long distance and time trial titles, less than a week before the start of the Tour, on July 1, in Bilbao (Spain).
“I was quite optimistic, the first two weeks were super good. Maybe the form was not ideal for the Tour. All the little things count, including preparation,” he said.
Even so, the leader of the United Arab Emirates assured that he was happy to continue in the Tour de France and occupy the vice-direction of the general.
“When you look at the big picture, it’s pretty good. We have second and third [na geral]. We’ve been wearing the yellow jersey for a few days, two stage victories and we’re going to try another. We will fight to be on the podium with both of them and we can be proud”, he said in reference to his British colleague Adam Yates, who is third, 10.45 behind Vingegaard.
Pogacar arrived this Thursday as part of the peloton, in the 18th stage, won by the Danish Kasper Asgreen (Soudal Quick-Step).
Source: TSF
