Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) has said Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) approached him early on today's stage at the Tour de France to sound him out about forming an alliance with him to attack race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma).
Pogačar attacked early on the stage - and also later in the climb to the finish in Mende - in a bid to get away from Vingegaard and gain back some of the 2:22 he trails him in the overall. Thomas said not long after Pogačar attacked close to the start of the stage he sounded him out about trying to expose Jumbo Visma's weakness at that time, with some of its riders trailing the front section that had pulled away from the rest of the peloton.
Thomas declined on the basis it didn't suit his approach to the stage or to the general classification, where he has sought to ride his own race on the climbs and by doing so try not to lose any more time to Vingegaard and Pogačar, who have proven by far the strongest climbers two weeks into the race.
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“On the first climb I saw him go and I was quite a way behind," Thomas said of Pogačar's early effort today as the race was splitting. "I saw Jonas not panicking, but jumping as well, but I thought ‘No it’s not going to keep riding when they’re together’. So I managed to stay in the wheels, follow some guys and work my way up, kind of how I’ve been riding the whole race basically."
He then added of Pogačar: "He came to me and said 'Jumbo are struggling, they’re struggling'. But I was like, ‘Yeah, but, if we all jump and it’s just GC guys, it makes no difference anyway.’ Obviously they’re having a hard day, but if he wants to jump around and make it hard for them, it’s fine by me.
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“If a GC guy did go up the road and Vingegaard doesn’t have teammates and he’s got to ride, then obviously (you would go for it). You’re looking at numbers all of the time, and the combinations, and if it is a good unit you slip and slide.”
In the end the early aggression resulted in a successful breakaway of over 20 riders getting clear, with Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco) winning the stage from that group. Once the breakaway became established the pace in the remains of the peloton was knocked off and a second section of the bunch - which was over two minutes back at one point - easily caught the front section again.
The next bit of serious action was on the climb to Mende at the end of the stage, where Pogačar attacked and only Vingegaard could match him. Thomas was distanced by the duo but, once again, rode his own pace up the climb and lost only 17 seconds to them, this retaining his 3rd place overall.
“It’s not necessarily my type of climb: steep and punchy, and 10 minutes or less and bang it was over," Thomas said of the Mende ascent. £But it was solid. As I said at the start of the day, a climb like that you can have the same sort of gaps as on Alpe d’Huez sometimes.
“Days like today are some of the hardest just because your legs are feeling a lot of attacks like today, and not much control, you’re always on the pedals and I don’t what our average was but the first hour would have been super high.”
