'UAE held Pogacar back from Tour stage win to keep the French fans happy'
On stage 14 of the 2025 Tour de France, a brutal day featuring the Col du Tourmalet, UAE Team Emirates set the tempo in the peloton. All signs pointed to another show of dominance by Tadej Pogačar. But in the final kilometres, something unexpected happened: the Slovenian did not attack. According to Michael Storer, this wasn’t just a tactical call - it may have been a strategic move to avoid further backlash from French fans.
“At least one day, I had some info that Tadej [Pogačar] decided not to win that stage,” Storer said on Domestique’s Hotseat podcast. “I find it a bit weird if you get your team to ride full gas all day and then on the last climb you just decide not to win the stage.”
That decision, according to Storer, might not have been purely tactical. “The info I got was apparently the French fans were booing him and then team management decided that it’s best that he doesn’t win that day just to keep the French fans onside. So I suspect that they took that into consideration as well in the last week, not to take everything.”
Storer, who spent several stages in breakaways for Tudor Pro Cycling and was one of the most combative riders of the Tour, didn’t hide his frustration. In his eyes, there is a difference between a rider being unable to win, and choosing not to win after controlling the entire race.
“If you don’t want to win the stage, decide that beforehand. Let the breakaway go and don’t burn your whole team. Maybe I’m too old school, but like, to me that makes a lot more sense,” he said.
Storer also questioned the logic behind such a strategy, given the toll it took on the team.
“Cause then you could see that UAE was on their knees by the end of the race. Like, and also Tadej as well was tired. So it's not defensive racing if you ride full gas all day.”
The discussion touches on a broader tension in modern cycling: the power dynamic between dominant GC teams and breakaway riders. In the era of riders like Pogačar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel, breakaways are no longer granted the time gaps they once enjoyed.
Storer believes that the days of generous time gaps for breakaways are over. “In the Tour, it was more about forcing the breakaway,” he said. “So it wasn’t like they were letting you go anymore. It was, they have to let you go. That made the racing extremely hard.”
There is, Storer admits, a fine line between being allowed to win and actually earning the victory. “I think he [Pogačar] probably shouldn't be going for every stage,” he said, when asked how it feels to win knowing the race leader chose not to contest it. “I guess you can put the argument that when they do let the breakaway go fully, they're deciding - like they are letting you win in the end. Like actually sometimes like the breakaway goes on, they really can't get you back. So I guess you can - like, the victory still counts.”
With Pogačar skipping the Vuelta a España, Storer wonders whether the dynamic might shift. “Maybe we see return of the 10-minute breakaways at the Vuelta,” he said, “where the breakaway goes and then they really sit up in the peloton, let it go, the race slows down.”
He won’t be there to find out - but if anyone deserves a proper breakaway after his efforts this Tour, it’s Michael Storer.
Catch the full Hotseat conversation with Michael Storer, only on Domestique.
