Tadej Pogacar’s crash leads to rare ceasefire with Visma

The simmering tension between UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Visma | Lease a Bike has been one of the key plotlines at this Tour de France, with their familiarity breeding the kind of lingering contempt seen between Real Madrid and Barcelona in the José Mourinho era or the Lakers and Celtics in the 1980s.

There was a break in hostilities on the run-in to Toulouse on stage 11, however, when a yellow jersey group that included the Visma pairing of Jonas Vingegaard and Matteo Jorgenson decided to slow and wait when Tadej Pogačar crashed with 4km remaining.

Although Pogačar was giving furious chase after remounting, he risked losing 20 or more seconds in the incident, which took place outside the 3km to go safety zone. He was saved by the sportsmanship of his rivals, and he remains second overall, 29 seconds down on Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost).

The Slovenian thanked his competitors afterwards.

It appears that the maillot jaune Healy initiated the conversation about waiting for Pogačar, though the Irishman consulted with two-time Tour winner Vingegaard before the group decision was taken.

“Yes, we made the collective decision to wait,” Jorgenson told NOS afterwards. “We all decided to wait for him.” 

Jorgenson was involved in a clash with Pogačar in the feed zone on stage 7, when the world champion pushed him and later suggested that Visma had deliberately attempted to impede him from taking on a bidon. 

Despite that contretemps, Jorgenson said that he had no regrets about the decision to slow and wait for Pogačar after his crash.

“I think it’s the sporting decision,” Jorgenson said. “I think after a lot of the comments the other day about, I guess, accusations of unsportsmanlike stuff, which I’ve never seen before from him…. I think at least now he can be confident we’re trying to beat him in a sporting way.”

Jorgenson's view was echoed by his teammate Vingegaard.

“He was riding next to me, so I saw the crash happen,” Vingegaard said. “Hopefully he's okay; we waited for him, as we should. If it happens like this, it's pure bad luck. The crash wasn't because he went too fast through a corner, but because he hit another rider. So this was the right way to handle it.”

Pogačar has pointedly questioned Visma’s tactics at various moments in this race, most notably when Vingegaard’s team rode to try to prevent him from passing the yellow jersey to Mathieu van der Poel on stage 6. Earlier this week, Victor Campenaerts had noted the Slovenian’s jaundiced view of Visma’s approach. “Sometimes I have the impression that he gets irritated or his team gets irritated that we try so hard,” Campenaerts said.

Jorgenson and Vingegaard’s agreement to slow the pace in the finale here was a temporary cessation in hostilities, though the pair had attacked Pogačar with intent on the day’s final climb, the Côte de Pech David.

Indeed, stage 11 of the Tour was a rolling battle from start to finish, with various splits throughout the day before the winning break eventually forged clear. The GC contenders all came home together, 3:28 down on winner Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), but only after an intense day of racing.

“I was on the back foot a lot of the day,” Jorgenson said. “I was at the back at the start, and every time it kind of slowed down, the road would be blocked, and I couldn’t make it to the front, and then it would restart again. I was on the back foot and behind some splits, but also with all the GC guys behind the splits. I felt safe in the chaos – but, still, it was full chaos.”

The Tour enters the Pyrenees on Thursday with a summit finish at Hautacam. Pogačar begins the day 1:17 ahead of Vingegaard and 1:37 ahead of Jorgenson. After a short truce in Toulouse, the Visma-UAE battle will recommence on stage 12.