The best laid plans of Tadej and Isaac: Even at UAE things don't always go as they should!

UAE Emirates-XRG claimed its third stage victory in the Tour de France on Tuesday with Tadej Pogacar, but not everything went smoothly for the team from the Emirates. White jersey wearer Isaac del Toro ran out of time and space, and due to his off day, the team was unable to execute its planned strategy.

Andrej Hauptman, Pogacar's regular team director, told TV2, "We had agreed that Tadej and Isaac would discuss the first-category climb, and I haven't spoken with them yet, so I can't tell you what they talked about."

"But the plan was for Tadej to attack earlier, but Isaac couldn't deliver the final sprint, so we had to wait a bit," said the Slovenian. "Of course, we would have preferred for Isaac to have kept the white jersey, but Isaac is still young. He’s here at the Tour de France to support Tadej. The Tour is still a long way off, and I’m sure Isaac’s day will come."

Pretty early on in the stage to Le Lioran, Pogacar’s teammates decided they would go for the stage win. “When we saw that the breakaway didn’t get away until pretty late and Florian and Nils were feeling good, we said, ‘Okay, we’re going to ride at our own pace.’ "Even Tim had really strong legs today. So yeah, we gave it a shot."

In the end, it turned out that Adam Yates, Brandon McNulty, and—by extension—Del Toro weren't having a great day. "This is the Tour de France. We need all eight riders to be in good form, and you saw that today."

Nevertheless, the victory was “just another win” for Pogacar, on the climb where he had been beaten just two years ago. “We all know that Jonas is a great champion. Losing to Jonas is no disgrace. But yeah, Tadej won again today, and that’s obviously great for morale—for all of us.”