UAE Team Emirates-XRG were delighted at the knock-out blow landed by Tadej Pogačar on the Hautacam stage of the Tour de France, but the squad is also very much aware that 10 days of hard racing still remain between the first high mountain stage and a possible fourth overall victory for the Slovenian in Paris.
Despite this being Pogačar's third stage win in the 2025 race and a crushing defeat of his rivals, his crash Wednesday provided serious concern for the team. Prior to that the loss of João Almeida was a significant setback, followed to a much lesser degree, by Pavel Sivakov's uneven climbing performance in the Massif Central stage.
However, as German powerhouse Nils Politt told reporters after the long ride down back off the Hautacam to the team buses waiting in the valley below, the team's morale already began lifting yesterday [Wednesday] evening when it became clear that Pogačar was not seriously injured in his crash.
"Actually we were already in a good mood. We saw he was OK, he was super-confident about today, and I think we can be really proud about how we rode as a team and chapeau to Tadej as well," Politt said.
"He was always looking forward to this stage, and like he said already on the bus that he wanted to win today.
"So I controlled things in the first 100 to 120 kilometres and then the team took over and chapeau to everybody. It's super nice."
Much of the earlier driving on the Soulor was made by Visma-Lease a Bike, in their umpteenth bid to try to weaken Pogačar and perhaps isolate him, with Sivakov amongst potential climbing support riders dropped. But crucially when Visma's Simon Yates dropped back near the summit, Adam Yates was waiting to take over for UAE.
The presence of UAE's Tim Wellens in the early, massive break of 50 proved crucial. Having dropped back on the Soulor from the stage leaders, the Belgian was still able to provide a blazing series of accelerations on the drop off the climb, as well as the first segment of the Hautacam.
Then after some more invaluable work from Yates, it was Jhonatan Narváez's final acceleration that acted as the definitive launchpad for Pogačar.
"We were super strong, everybody's going at 110 percent at the moment and we have a good gap now," Politt said. "But it's still one week to Paris and we still have some metres of climbing to come.
"For sure, Visma will try something again, so we have to stay focussed and hopefully we can beat them."
The team management were equally delighted yet mindful of the upcoming challenges, with Sports Director Andrej Hauptmann telling TNT that it had been a great team effort, but they knew what was facing them in the days to come as well.
"It was a super performance from Tadej, from all the team, actually. We put Tim in the front group because we expected Visma to go with a hard pace, so we say we needed him there.
"Then after the Cat. 2 climb [Col des Bordères] he started to pull, and we saw that Jorgenson was on the limit, so for this reason we went full from the bottom [of Hautacam]. First Adam [Yates], then Johnny [Narváez]. - Jonny did a really good lead out and then Tadej did a Tadej phenomenon."
Hauptmann added that on the Soulor the team were in a better position that perhaps it seemed, as Jorgenson was dropped twice. So they developed the idea of waiting for the final ascent to see if they could drop him. As things played, not only Jorgenson was dropped, but Jonas Vingegaard was clearly on a bad day as well, losing over two minutes to Pogačar.
"It's really incredible, but still - the real Tour de France and Tour de France climbing starts today," Hauptman warned.
"We need to keep our feet on the ground. Tomorrow [Friday] is an important time trial, and then there is maybe one of the most difficult stages [the Ventoux], and then there are still the Alps to come."
The momentum is definitely with UAE now, thought, and such has been his success rate, there was something of the sense of the inevitable about the way Pogačar blasted off some 11 kilometres from the summit. Politt confirmed that in the team, too, the script had unfolded according to expectations, with Pogačar simply doing what he always does.
"It's no longer a surprise any more. When he says he's going to go, most of the time - he goes."
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