🎥 Pogacar and Jorgenson clash in feed zone, world champion frustrated: "They do this a lot"

At the finish line on the famous Breton hill, it was the last moment for riders to grab a water bottle. As expected, many riders wanted to do so, including Pogacar and Jorgenson. Pogacar made a move to grab a bottle, but the American squeezed in front of the eventual winner. Pogacar didn't seem to like that: he pushed him so that he also had room to grab a water bottle.

Before the start of the flat eighth stage to Laval, the new yellow jersey wearer was asked about the incident. “There was a feed zone, and we were riding in a line,” he explained to ITV. “I signaled my intention to ride to my soigneur, who was 20 meters behind Visma. But they decided to pass me on my right, so I had no choice but to push him to grab my water bottle.”

That was the rather innocent explanation given by the top rider, who didn't want to make a big deal out of it. But he couldn't resist throwing another kick at Visma | Lease a Bike. "It was normal for me, but I don't know what their intention was. They do this a lot, riding in front of you in the feed zone like they're the only ones who want to grab a water bottle. Sometimes you have to be patient and stay on the wheel to take something and show respect to everyone."

In a chat with cycling journalist Daniel Benson before the start, Visma team leader Grischa Niermann dismissed Pogacar's words as pure fantasy. “Of course there's rivalry, because we're the two best teams in the race, but it's good for the media to blow it up. I saw that we apparently tried to make sure Pogacar missed a water bottle and things like that, but that's complete bullshit,” he said clearly.

“We're competing against each other and won't be rolling out the red carpet for Pogacar. We'll do everything we can to get Jonas in the lead. But I think the media is exaggerating a bit,” Niermann added. During the eighth stage, all of Pogacar's frustration seemed to melt away on a day when the peloton was able to catch its breath.

It was so quiet that Pogacar even had time to check in with his team to ask how his fiancée Urska Zigart had performed on Saturday in the Giro d'Italia Women. When he found out that Zigart had finished seventh in the stage and was eighth in the overall standings, he also asked about the results of the Tour of Austria. Isaac Del Toro won there for the third day in a row, taking the leader's jersey.