“I repeat, we do not pull. After the crash of somebody we do not pull,” were the words that crackled through the Soudal Quick-Step team radio in the closing kilometres of stage 11 of the Tour de France. The defending Tour winner and world champion had just suffered a shock crash from the group of general classification favourites, his front wheel taken out after Uno-X’s Tobias Halland Johannessen swung from the left to the right side of the road. Tadej Pogačar was up and back on his bike quickly, but he had a chase on his hands. How long that chase would take was dependent on the actions of those in front of him.
Almost immediately, the consensus in the front group was to wait for the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider to make it back to them, rather than continuing to race and attack. Yellow jersey holder Ben Healy was instrumental in making this happen, and the team of Jonas Vingegaard, Visma-Lease a Bike, also honoured the EF Education rider’s call for ‘fair play.’
“I guess it's just respect amongst riders,” Healy said after the stage. “I don't think we were really expecting any time gaps from that point forward. If anyone else was on the other side of that, I think you'd appreciate the same in return. Whenever someone makes a silly mistake in the final where there's not going to be a crazy difference from that point forward then I think anyone would appreciate the same.”
Vingegaard’s key mountain domestique, Matteo Jorgenson, agreed with Healy, stating that while his team are desperately trying to get the better of Pogačar, they do not want to win the Tour de France by taking advantage of the Slovenian rider crashing.
“We made the polite decision to wait – we all decided to wait for him. It was the sporting decision, and after the comments the other day of unsportsmanlike stuff we have seen from him, he can now be confident we are trying to beat him in a sporting way,” the American rider said at the stage finish in Toulouse.
Pogačar himself stressed that he was grateful for the ‘respect’ from his rivals, with his team releasing a statement afterwards which confirmed that he had bruises and abrasions, but no broken bones.
"I'm quite ok. I'm a bit beaten up, but we've been through worse days. It's been a hectic day, actually, from start to finish. In the end, I had a little bit of a crash. Thanks to the peloton in front, they actually waited. Obviously, the race was more or less over back there, but still, they could take time – maybe not take too much time – but I would need to go really deep to come back like this. Really big respect to everybody in front. Thanks for your support guys,” the world champion said.
“Unfortunately one rider decided to follow an attack from the left to right side of the road and he didn't see me so he just completely cut off my front wheel," he continued when asked about his crash. "Luckily I just have a little bit of skin off. I was scared when I saw the sidewalk that I was going with my head directly to the sidewalk, but luckily my skin is tough and stopped me before the sidewalk."
On stage 11, Pogačar came close to catastrophe in this Tour de France, and his crash was a harsh reminder of how fragile this race really is. The peloton today honoured cycling’s unwritten rules out of respect for a rider with such high prestige and decorated palmarès. Would they have done the same thing if the race was on and they were attacking in a mountain stage? Would the same respect have been given to another rider? If it had been Healy in Pogačar’s position, would they have waited? Is part of trying to win the Tour de France about good and bad luck?
The ‘gentlemen's agreement’ that was acted upon in stage 11 today was undoubtedly commendable from Pogačar’s rivals, but these kinds of rules are complicated because they are unwritten. It is down to the discretion of teams and riders whether they are implemented, and Visma-Lease a Bike must hope that the same respect would be given in their favour if the roles were reversed. Cycling is a sport with a web of puzzling complexities, and this is a perfect example of that.
For Pogačar, he’s simply counting his lucky stars, and hoping that the crash has not impacted him for the mountains to come: "Tomorrow is a big day coming. We'll see how I recover. Normally the day after a crash you're never at the best, but I will give my best tomorrow and we'll see. I think we're ready as a team for Hautacam."
