On a day that will be dominated by talk of Jonas Vingegaard's shocking crash and abandon of the Tour de France, the race re-shaped today in several different ways, not least of which was whether Tadej Pogačar is starting to soften a bit in his pursuit of stage wins.
Tadej doesn't give gifts, but did he just give a gift to Remco?
All Tour, Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG team have consistently said that they are not out to share the stage-win wealth. Pogačar set up teammate Isaac del Toro for his stage 2 win, but on other days when the team could have left riders out front, Pogačar instead chose to attack. That started to soften on stage 14, which Pogačar won but where he held off attacking until the Visma-led favorites' group had already caught the last breakaway riders out front.
Today, it was Pogačar setting pace and clearly trying to set Del Toro up for another win, only to see Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) counterattack and come away with his first road stage win in a Tour. As Evenepoel dashed toward the line, Pogačar covered the move and then sat down rather than trying to overtake the Belgian. So was that a gift? Yes and no.
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