'Haters will always hate' - The secret Tour de France prize Tadej Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates XRG are targeting
Published 14/07/2026 at 15:16 GMT+1
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What is the secret Tour de France prize Tadej Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates XRG are targeting? It's been a dominant start to the race from the peloton's prominent team, and there are no signs of them easing up in their pursuit of glory.
Why the 'haters will always hate' Pogacar as UAE target secret prize
Video credit: TNT Sports
Pogacar, after detonating a violent attack on the Col du Tourmalet on Stage 6, established a 2'42" lead over closest general classification rival Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), which still holds into the second week.
With Vingegaard having a promising pre-Tour season, there were hopes that the top two would have a battle for the ages on the Tour's mountain stages.
There is still time for the Dane to claw back time, especially given he often grows into the three-week race, and the fact there is the double ascent of Alpe d'Huez in the latter stages of the final week that could see huge time gaps between riders.
Not content with going so aggressively after the yellow jersey, UAE also currently have Pogacar sitting in the polka dot jersey, and Isaac Del Toro in the white, young riders top.
Stage 9 was particularly instructive about their ambitions, as they drove the pace for much of the day and seemed unwilling to let anyone get too far up the road.
Jonathan Vaughters, chief of EF Education-EasyPost, said he "no idea" what UAE's game plan was, but saw it as a "flex".
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And following the rest day, it was a mystery that TNT Sports' Breakaway team tried to unpick.
"When debriefing what they actually did on the stage, Adam [Blythe] said they were riding for Pog[acar], Tim Wellens [of UAE] said they were riding for Del Toro, and [UAE Team Principal] Mauro Gianetti said 'we just wanted to make it hard', so we still haven't got an answer," Matt Stephens said.
"And Tadej said 'we were just riding our pace'," added Robbie McEwen.
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'Hurt a lot of legs' - UAE's game plan discussed as Breakaway team disagrees on strategy
Video credit: TNT Sports
Blythe, also in the TNT Sports studio, shared some intel from inside UAE that shed light on their ambitions: "I heard that the reason why they rode - this is from within the team - [was for the] team classification.
"The haters will always hate, and if Tadej keeps winning stages they'll carry on hating him for winning too much, they'll class him as greedy.
"If they announce they're going for the team prize as well - [it's like], 'what else do you want to take guys, do you want to take the green jersey?'
"So maybe they're just not saying it on air - sorry - but I think that might be a valid reason."
UAE are currently 27'08" behind leaders Lidl-Trek in the team classification.
This apparent focus on a clean sweep makes scrapping for the jerseys an even tougher ask for UAE's rival teams, but Stephens thinks Vingegaard and Visma can yet find a way back.
"They [UAE] are the team that's setting the benchmark, they are so strong, and this looks like the best version of Tadej Pogacar that we've ever seen," he said.
"But there's still a lot of racing still to come, it is a hard week and I still think there are opportunities.
"And I still think they do believe, and let's hope that we see a Visma-Lease a Bike and a Jonas that does actually start to bed himself into this race."
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