Pogacar slams jury decision after Van Poppel relegation in Deutschland Tour

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) has publicly defended Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) after the Dutchman was relegated in the third stage of the Deutschland Tour after crossing the line first.

Van Poppel had thought he won the stage ahead of Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) and Emilien Jeannière (TotalEnergies). 

However, the Dutch champion was relegated for deviating during the sprint finish, moving left and boxing in a visibly frustrated Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike), preventing the British rider from moving through a gap between Van Poppel and Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility).

Pogačar gave his thoughts on the relegation publicly via social media, which he deemed to be incorrect.

"The clear winner of today's stage. These relegations are absolute jokes and not correct, job done poorly... like so many times this year," said Pogačar in a social media post alongside a photo of the finish. "Congrats, Danny van Poppel, you won."

Pogačar expanded on his thoughts in a second post, stating, "Don't get me wrong. If they are relegating riders here, they can relegate 4 to 5 riders. Look [at] all the pictures. Peace out."

After being declared the new winner of the stage, Wærenskjold was asked about his thoughts on Van Poppel's relegations, and the Norwegian wasn't critical of the jury like Pogačar, suggesting that the Dutchman didn't need to deviate to win.

"I've seen the footage, and I think it was the right decision. It's not the way I want to win. He was the strongest one, but he didn't keep the line. If he just kept the line, he would have won anyway," Wærenskjold said in his post-race interview.

For Wærenskjold, this victory marks his 2nd in this edition of the Deutschland Tour after winning the opening prologue, and he leads the general classification by 10 seconds over Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and 15 seconds ahead of Riley Sheehan (Israel-Premier Tech) with one final stage remaining.