Jorgenson hasn't forgotten Pogacar’s earlier comments and responds wittily after Visma | Lease a Bike waited for him

A few kilometers from the finish, Pogacar hit the rear wheel of Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) and went down awkwardly. With his chain off, it seemed like Pogacar might lose significant time to his GC rivals. But they chose to wait further up the road, led in part by Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) and Visma | Lease a Bike.

“They waited, even though the race was kind of over,” Pogacar said afterward. “They could have taken some time and I would have had to dig deep to get back. Huge respect to everyone up there—thank you all.” His rivals unanimously stated that it was the only right thing to do. Winning off someone else's misfortune was not an option, according to several teams.

Matteo Jorgenson hopes Tadej Pogacar will have a little more confidence in Visma | Lease a Bike and the team's intentions after the Dutch formation waited for the world champion in stage 11 of the Tour de France. Pogacar crashed in the finale and appeared to be losing time, but the group of favorites decided to wait.

Pogacar rode into the back wheel of Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) a few kilometers from the finish and went pretty nasty to the ground. Because his chain was off, Pogacar looked like he was going to lose quite a lot of time on his direct competitors in the classification. But they decided to wait a little further down the road, in part by initiative of Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) and Visma | Lease a Bike.

'They waited, even though the race was kind of over. However, they could have taken a little bit of time and I had to go deep to come back. A lot of respect to everyone there, thank you all,' Pogacar said afterwards. His competitors all argued that it was the only right decision to make. Don't win on someone else's back, was the credo among several teams.

Jorgenson also told NOS that waiting for Pogacar was a "collective decision." The crash involving the second-placed rider in the GC happened just behind the Visma American. Although there was a brief moment of racing, all the big names soon slowed down. “I heard a big crash, although I don’t know if it happened directly behind me,” he confirmed. “We made the decision collectively to wait, it was the sporting thing to do.”

Jorgenson ended the interview with a subtle jab at the world champion, who had frequently criticized Visma | Lease a Bike’s tactics during the first ten days. After stage 6, Pogacar questioned Visma’s late-stage strategy; after stage 7, he said he didn’t understand their acceleration on the Mûr-de-Bretagne; and he even called them unsportsmanlike when he missed a bottle and he gave Jorgenson a shove just before. Oh, and after Stage 10, he called the Killer Bees “irritating.”

Visma | Lease a Bike surely remembered all that, but it didn’t stop them from waiting for Pogi. According to Jorgenson, maybe now Pogacar should tone it down a bit in post-race interviews. “I think after all his accusations of unsportsmanlike behavior and such, which I’ve never heard from him before, he can now trust that we want to beat him in a fair way,” said the team’s second-in-command behind Vingegaard.