Pogacar's Jorgenson push highlights UAE-Visma tension at Tour de France

The running tension between Tadej Pogačar and Visma | Lease a Bike has been one of the key narrative strands of the opening week of the Tour de France, with the Slovenian making some pointed critiques of his rival team’s tactics to this point.

The clash seemed to escalate a little further following an incident on stage 7 to Mûr-de-Bretagne, where Pogačar ultimately claimed stage victory ahead of Jonas Vingegaard.

Television footage showed Pogacar placing a hand on Vingegaard’s teammate Matteo Jorgenson’s back and pushing him as they rode through the feed zone. The gesture appeared to cause the Visma rider to drop his bidon. 

When asked about the incident ahead of stage 8, Pogačar insisted that he had been trying to find space to take a bottle from a UAE Team Emirates-XRG soigneur, only for a delegation from Visma to pass him on his right-hand side at the crucial moment.

“There was a feed zone and we were riding in one line,” Pogačar told ITV Sport. “I showed an intention to go for my bottle. My soigneur was 20 metres after Visma, but they decided to pass us on the right side. If I wanted to take a bottle, I could not do anything else than give him a little bit of a push so I could catch my bottle.”

Pogačar maintained that the incident was “normal,” though he claimed that he had already had misgivings about Visma’s feed zone etiquette.

“For me it was normal, but I don’t know what was their intention,” Pogačar said. “They do this a lot of times, coming in front of you in the feed zone like they are the only ones having the bottles there. Sometimes you have to be patient and stay on the wheel when you’re taking the bottles and pay respect to everybody.”

Pogačar and his Visma | Lease a Bike rivals have filled the top two positions at each of the past five editions of the Tour, and the trend is expected to continue in 2025. The Slovenian beat his compatriot Primoz Roglic into second place in 2020 and had Vingegaard as his runner-up in 2021 and 2024. Vingegaard defeated Pogačar to win the Tour in 2022 and 2023.

On Friday, Pogačar and Vingegaard finished as the top two on a Tour stage for the 13th time, with the Slovenian leading that particular head-to-head 10-3. In the overall standings, Pogačar currently has a lead of 1:17 over Vingegaard, who lies in fourth place.

Visma | Lease a Bike have been aggressive in their racing throughout the opening week, repeatedly attempting to place riders in the early break and their injection of pace in the finale of stage 6 to Vire almost thwarted Pogačar’s plan to farm out the yellow jersey to Mathieu van der Poel.

“Maybe Visma wanted to give me [the] yellow jersey today,” Pogačar complained afterwards.

The following day, Visma directeur sportif Grischa Niermann hit back at Pogačar’s criticism. “It’s a good thing he doesn’t get it,” he said. “We followed our own strategy and did exactly what we set out to do. Period.”