Pogacar: UAE want team classification, but yellow jersey remains Tour de France priority
Tadej Pogacar’s yellow jersey remains UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s main objective at the Tour de France, but the race leader admitted his teammates also hold the ambition of winning the team classification.
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Heading into stage 17, UAE Team Emirates-XRG trail Lidl-Trek by just 23 seconds in the standings while Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe sit more than 46 minutes behind in third, making it a two-way contest into the final week of racing.
“We are close for team classification also. It’s something that the guys would really like to have but it’s not the main priority of course, so we’ll see what happens,” Pogačar told Eurosport ahead of stage 17.
Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) made clear that the team intends to keep fighting for the classification, which is decided by the combined times of each team's three best riders on every stage.
“Today is a very important stage for Lidl-Trek,” Wellens told Sporza. “We're within half a minute in the team classification. It would be a shame to let that slip away. We'll try to keep an eye on them.”
Because the standings are based on three riders per team each day, a successful breakaway involving multiple riders from one squad can quickly change the situation.
“Hopefully, they don't get three riders into the breakaway and pull out a ten-minute lead. That wouldn't be good for our team classification.”
Wellens has previously admitted that while the classification is not officially one of UAE’s main goals, it remains something the riders would like to win, as long as the pursuit does not interfere with Pogačar’s yellow jersey quest.
“It is a sensitive subject,” Wellens said earlier in the race. “Florian [Vermeersch] and I would really like to win the team classification, but we are not supposed to say that too loudly because it is not a priority within the team. As long as it does not put Tadej at risk, though, we are secretly going for it.”
UAE’s focus on not letting the team classification slip from their grasp has been on display throughout the Tour.
During stage 9, when the team controlled the breakaway on a day eventually won by Mathieu van der Poel, Wellens explained that Lidl-Trek’s position in the classification was one factor behind their tactics.
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