Pogačar and UAE on high alert after Adam Yates shock at the Tour de France: 'Every little detail can affect you'

Tadej Pogacar and Isaac del Toro made it through the 17th stage of the Tour de France just fine, but UAE Emirates-XRG must have been shocked by Adam Yates’s performance. The Brit broke away from a leisurely-paced peloton and appeared to come to a complete standstill for a brief moment. Thanks to teammate Tim Wellens, he made it to the finish, but that raised the question afterward: how are Pogačar and Del Toro doing?

The riders in first and third place in the general classification had few problems on Stage 17, although Del Toro did briefly find himself in a second group during the opening phase of the stage. According to Pogačar, Del Toro’s situation was due to a descent during which the peloton split briefly. “Once we were at the bottom, the leading group formed. No one was riding for anything in particular,” he emphasised in a flash interview. “

"This stage was exactly as I had imagined it," the overall leader continued, referring to the insane stage. "I'm happy for Jasper (Philipsen, ed.) that he won today, but he could just as easily have done it from the peloton," Pogi laughed. The Slovenian watched half the peloton attack from start to finish, but for the general classification contenders, the group broke up halfway through the race.

So they rode at a somewhat slower pace toward the finish, nearly 9 minutes behind the leaders. For Del Toro, too, this was a welcome opportunity to recover a bit. “I’m doing well,” Del Toro emphasized in his flash interview, as the wearer of the white youth jersey. The No. 3 rider in the general classification had no physical complaints.

That was certainly true for Yates, who, according to Pogacar, had already struggled in the time trial on Stage 16. “Adam struggled like crazy yesterday, but he looked much better this morning. It was just such a tough stage, even for fit riders. When Adam fell behind, we decided to have Tim wait for him and ride him to the finish. There’s a chance he’ll recover from this and be in good shape on Friday and Saturday.”

On paper, it’s an unrealistic scenario, but UAE Emirates-XRG emphasized that Yates wasn’t so sick that withdrawing was a necessity. Of course, the team is still on high alert, including Pogacar as the main leader. “I could have a day like Adam did today. Every little detail can affect you and turn things around, so it’s nice to be in the lead, but everything can change.”