That’s racing – Geraint Thomas defends Tadej Pogacar’s Tour de France dominance

CHALON-SUR-SAONE – Tadej Pogacar’s dominance of the Tour de France is so pronounced that many people believe the race is already over at the halfway point.

And many feel that his UAE Emirates-XRG team’s tactics have stripped the Grande Boucle of any suspense – barely giving anyone else a chance to win even a single stage.

But former winner Geraint Thomas said that it is up to the others to try to beat the world champion rather than to expect handouts from his team.

Pogacar won three of the first 10 stages to open up a lead of more than three-and-a-half minutes over his nearest challenger, Jonas Vingegaard. That was the largest lead the four-time winner had ever had at that stage of the race.

Many people have questioned why UAE have pulled so hard in the peloton on days that seemed destined for a successful breakaway and in which there seemed to be no danger to Pogacar’s grip on the yellow jersey.

But not Thomas, the 2018 Tour winner who is now director of racing at his former team, Netcompany-Ineos.

“If you can, why not? It’s a bike race at the end of the day. I don’t think they should be going easy for anyone,” the 40-year-old Briton said.

“There shouldn’t be any gifts for it. You’ve got to deserve and earn it. If a team want to chase, then it’s a race.”

Pogacar, 27, himself said after his Stage 3 win that his team just “love racing and we are here to race for the victory”.

And when he won Stage 10, he added that “you never know how long it lasts and we just need to be grateful for this moment to be riding here in the biggest race of the world”.

The world champion now has 24 stage wins to his name and looks hell bent on adding several more as he seeks a record-equalling fifth yellow jersey.

This dominance has led to some people speculating that riders are reluctant to fight too hard to make it into a breakaway, given how determined UAE seem to be to chase them down.

But Irishman Ben Healy said that the heat – with temperatures yet to drop below 30 deg C at the Tour and often surpassing 40 deg C – had much to do with that.

“Even in the last couple of Tours, they’ve still ridden like this. They’re just as strong this year, if not stronger,” the EF Education-EasyPost rider said of UAE.

“They can’t control every single stage, so you’ve just got to be there, ready.”

Frenchman Warren Barguil said that it was strange to criticise a team for wanting to set up one of their riders for a stage victory.

“You could say the same thing about sprinters’ teams when they chase down breakaways,” the Picnic-PostNL veteran said.

“When sprinters’ teams chase the breakaway to help their sprinters win, no one complains. For me, it’s the same thing.”

Briton Fred Wright also believes that UAE are not doing anything out of the ordinary.

“They’re the strongest team, they’ve got the strongest riders, and they all said it in interviews: if anyone else could ride like that, they would ride like this,” he said.

The Pinarello Q36.5 rider pointed to the July 14 stage when the general consensus from riders was that “we weren’t racing together enough as a breakaway to stand any chance anyway”.

“If you want to be in the break, you’ve got to really pull together,” he added. AFP