Geraint Thomas sees team classification as a smokescreen for UAE: 'Cover because tactics weren't good'

UAE Emirates-XRG has been calling the shots at the Tour de France so far. That means there’s a lot of talk about that squad. Tadej Pogačar’s team has been criticised for aiming too high, but Decathlon CMA CGM team director Luke Rowe and Netcompany INEOS manager Geraint Thomas don’t entirely agree with that assessment on their “Watts Occuring” podcast.

Rowe is guiding Paul Seixas through the Tour and disagrees with the criticism they’re receiving from other teams. “I really can’t fault UAE one bit. Some teams are really giving them a hard time, and they’re getting booed. But listen, if they can win the stage, they’ve got the golden ticket,” he says, referring to Pogačar.

"Just go for it. Yeah, they’ve got the team for it. So they’ll get some flak, but hey… we’ve been in that position, haven’t we? We know what it feels like to have that thrown at you,” says the man from Wales, who himself rode as team leader for Sky/INEOS for years and therefore knows what it feels like to work as a domestique for the best team at the Tour de France.

During the stage, it was sometimes hard to figure out why UAE was leading the pack. Stage wins, the general classification, or even the team classification? “Recently, they supposedly rode for the team classification, and that’s exactly why I don’t buy it. They’re just using that as a cover because their tactics weren’t good,” said Thomas.

"After Stage 9, they said they were riding for the team classification, but in Stage 10 we passed Adam Yates—their third rider—and he was completely spent; he lost four minutes. If you’re really riding for the team classification, that third rider has to keep going. So I don’t buy it,” he says.