UAE Team Emirates-XRG allrounder Tim Wellens has explained how he and Visma-Lease a Bike racer Matteo Jorgenson ended up all but cancelling each other out during the stage 20 Tour de France breakaway to Pontarlier.
On a tough, rainy day across the foothills of the Jura, the current Belgian National Champion and stage 16 winner made it into the 13-man break of the day, with Jorgenson also making it across.
However, Wellens and Jorgenson then ended up being distanced, while a late attack by Harry Sweeny (EF Education-EasyPost) then saw the break itself falling apart. Meanwhile, the Belgian and American seemed perhaps overly interested in shadowing each other, burning themselves out of the battle.
Wellens said later that he did not have the legs to go for the win, while Jorgenson added that "We both together took ourselves out of the race on the second climb of the day."
“Matteo and I were kind of stuck together,” Wellens told Sporza afterwards.
"Matteo had attacked and put me right on the limit. Then the rest rode away, and we were left together."
Wellens told another group of reporters that once Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) had opened up a gap of a minute, he all but knew it was game over. The Belgian and American finally finished in eighth and ninth place on the stage.
"Today was super hard, in the beginning there were maybe 40 riders with all the favourites, including [race leader and teammate] Tadej (Pogačar)," Wellens said.
"Then we went away again with three guys – myself, Jorgenson and an Arkéa, I don't remember the name of [Ewen Costiou], and we killed ourselves a little bit to ride in front of the breakaway."
"They caught us, and then when the final began, I felt we were pretty tired."
Regarding the way in which he had Jorgenson were marking each other so closely, Wellens said that their strengths were matched, so it was a rivalry that ended up with the two cancelling each other out.
"The problem was that both me and Jorgenson were a little bit a bloc, we had the same level today, but it was difficult."
He pointed out to Belgian television that whenever Jorgenson attacked, he, too, reached his own maximum capacity, making it impossible for either to get away. In any case, he concluded, neither of them had the legs to win.
"The problem was mainly that we rode so hard together at the beginning that we ended up killing ourselves."
Jorgenson expressed a similar point of view, telling reporters after the stage that he and Wellens had burned each other out.
"Wellens and I spent our bullets pretty early, and we never recovered. We both together took ourselves out of the race on the second climb of the day," he said.
"I could tell the whole day that I didn't have the legs to win, and I could tell that Kaden was super strong. I tried to get ahead early, I knew quite quickly that the legs were not going to come around."
Some will see the Wellens-Jorgenson mini-duel as the latest instalment of a rivalry between UAE and Visma that stretched back to the first week and saw some strong differences of opinion emerge between Wout van Aert and Pogačar after stage 15.
But in any case, as Wellens said, even if he could not win a second stage, UAE Team Emirates-XRG have plenty of reasons to celebrate nonetheless.
"I have no regrets, though. I'm pleased with my Tour, obviously, winning today would have been even nicer. We're very close now, winning the overall with Tadej, so whatever happens, for me and for the team in any case, it's been a resounding success."
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