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It’s worth noting that UAE have two stage wins plus 5 days in yellow, compared to Jumbo-Visma who’ve yet to win a stage and have just taken the yellow jersey.
I don’t agree on the UAE climber point, they were too far back yesterday when Kelderman accelerated, but so was pretty much everyone else, but before that they’d been present and correct.
I do think it’s odd that they’ve come to the Tour without three of their best climbers; Ayuso, Almeida and Vine, though.
From my DS/ psychology armchair, given the day before (not just in the tour) Pogacar was going to come out fighting, quite simply he had to.
JV have isolated themselves from other competitors and have time on the favourite. UAE climbers haven’t really shown up yet!? So not sure there’s a huge swing to UAE.
I also think it could come back to bite Pogacar, my guess would be whilst he might be able to produce sporadic efforts that his recovery between will be the biggest impact in his form.
Both seemed to go pretty deep, Pogacar post finish line body language didn’t seem super positive from what I saw.
Hopefully lots more twists to come!