‘We do nothing to beat UAE’: Jordan Jegat turns criticism back on Tour breakaways
Jordan Jegat has little sympathy for riders complaining about the way Tadej Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates-XRG are controlling the Tour de France.
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The Frenchman accepts that UAE is the strongest team in the race. What he does not accept is that the responsibility lies entirely with them.
After riding in the breakaway on stage 10 to Le Lioran, Jegat felt the attackers had done as much damage to their own chances as the team chasing behind.
“I was a little disappointed after the stage to Le Lioran,” Jegat told In de Leiderstrui. “Not with UAE, because we have known for several years that they are the best.”
UAE kept the breakaway within reach for much of the day before Pogačar took control of the race and won the stage. It was a pattern that had already been seen several times during the Tour.
Jegat, however, was not interested in blaming the yellow jersey’s team.
“They always race in the same way,” he said. “A lot of riders are unhappy because they win everything. But when we get into a breakaway, we do not work together.”
According to the TotalEnergies rider, the lack of cooperation at the front of the race made UAE’s task much easier.
“People start attacking with 100 kilometres to go,” he said. “In the end, we are also doing nothing to beat UAE, and that is disappointing.”
It is a different view from much of the discussion surrounding Pogačar and his team. As UAE’s grip on the race has tightened, the criticism from inside and around the peloton has become louder.
Movistar sports director José Joaquín Rojas was among those to question the team’s approach. His frustration followed stage nine, when UAE kept the gap to the breakaway small even though none of the riders at the front posed an immediate threat to Pogačar’s yellow jersey.
“What UAE did yesterday [Sunday] made no sense,” Rojas told Spanish news agency. “I speak to 85 per cent of the sports directors and they all think the same.”
Mathieu van der Poel eventually won that stage from the breakaway, but Rojas believed UAE’s tactics had discouraged teams that might otherwise have tried to shape the race. In his view, allowing attackers more room is part of what gives different riders and teams a reason to compete.
Former Tour de France stage winner Jan Bakelants raised a similar concern on Sporza’s Tour podcast. He questioned how UAE’s approach was being received by the other teams in the race.
“You have to wonder how they are perceived in the peloton,” Bakelants said. “When you keep the breakaway within a minute and refuse to give anyone space, you are not making friends.”
Bakelants felt the team could have allowed the escapees a much larger advantage on the road to Le Lioran without putting the yellow jersey in danger.
“They could easily have given those riders 15 minutes,” he said. “Instead, they closed the gap and won again. When you become too greedy, it starts to frustrate the other teams. I would be interested to see how that is being received inside the peloton.”
Bakelants believes there may eventually be consequences if UAE continues to deny the other teams opportunities.
“At some point, an alliance forms and everyone is against you,” he said.
Jegat’s message is simpler: before the peloton turns against UAE, the riders in the breakaway need to stop turning on each other.
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