“It was a little bit of improvisation. I was ready to pace like normal but he told me to attack and I was like ‘what?!’ With Tadej I’ve got no idea of the plan.” - Adam Yates
Tadej Pogačar is not like other bike racers. When they may look down at their head units to see how many watts they are putting out up a climb, Pogačar is looking ahead for the next moment to attack. When they may dread a day of crosswinds and chaos, Pogačar is licking his lips. When they may think that they know his race plan, Pogačar will do something entirely off-script. He did just that on stage 14 of the Tour de France – the biggest day in the mountains that the peloton has faced so far this year.
It looked like UAE Team Emirates were lining things out on the final climb to Pla d'Adet for Pogačar to make one of his usual, trademark attacks and try and gain time on his general classification rivals. The likes of Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel close behind the Slovenian rider’s wheel, watching and waiting for his teammates to do their usual pulls on the front of the bunch, steadily upping the pace.
But Pogačar knew what they were thinking. He was aware of their eyes burning into the back of his yellow jersey, so he decided to do something that even his own teammates didn’t expect.
In the closing kilometres of the climb, it wasn’t Pogačar himself who made a move, but his teammate Adam Yates. The attack was made by the British rider at the yellow jersey wearer’s own request, Yates confirmed afterwards. No one saw it coming, just like no one expected Yates to cause chaos by getting in the breakaway on stage 13, either, but this is just how Pogačar likes it. The 24-year-old seems to revel in throwing surprises at his rivals – he’s a pure, unchained bike racer.
“It’s always good to have your teammate up front. Why not test the legs of the others like this? If Adam is flying, then he takes the stage win. If others are cooked, then I can try,” Pogačar explained after the stage. “Maybe it was just improvisation, but in the end, it worked because it was less expected. It was just the thing I had in my mind. It’s hard to explain how you come to these decisions when it’s so hard.”
No one could ever really try to understand the mindset of Tadej Pogačar, and that is what makes him such an entertaining bike racer. After he caught up with Yates and eventually won the stage himself, Pogačar gained 39 seconds on Vingegaard meaning the UAE Team Emirates rider now leads the Tour de France by almost two minutes. If it was anyone else in his position, then the race might seem like a dull, foregone conclusion. But those words aren’t even in Pogačar's vocabulary. He’ll always win with surprise, flair and panache.
“He was in killer mode. The teammates decided in the moment to make Yates attack,” UAE Team Emirates sports director Maxtin Fernandez confirmed after the stage.
Pogačar's racing style somewhat goes against the grain in the modern peloton. It’s a world of marginal gains and incremental improvements, with every gram of carbohydrate measured, every watt of power accounted for, every fold on a skinsuit cut for aerodynamic advantages. Yet still, here Pogačar is, winning the bike race and wearing yellow while relying on “improvisation” and “fun”.
“I definitely would say I’m much better than last year, more consistent,” Pogačar commented after the stage. “But you cannot only watch the power output. It’s also about how you handle all the pressure, all the emotions, everything. This adds up every year. I’m getting more and more comfortable on the bike. I’m having fun and enjoying this moment.”
There are still some big tests to come in this Tour de France, but at the moment, Tadej Pogačar seems in complete control. In his own weird and wonderful way, the Slovenian rider is calling the shots in this race, riding exactly how he wants to and gaining more and more time on the general classification as he goes. We may not be able to fully understand it, but what Pogačar is doing right now is working.
Bringing joy, spontaneity and a bit of spark into professional bike racing is only a positive for the sport. Above all, giving Pogačar the reins on this Tour is making for some entertaining bike racing.
“It’s cycling, it’s a game we play. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose,” the Slovenian rider smiled after the stage. “But today, for me, this was a big win.”
