Why did Tadej Pogačar give up the yellow and polka dot jerseys at the Tour de France?

The world champion will be back in the rainbow bands for stage seven at least

Tadej Pogačar in yellow at the Tour de France
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Viewers switching on to watch stage seven of the Tour de France might be surprised to see that Tadej Pogačar, the world champion, will be back in the rainbow bands, not the yellow jersey, and not the polka dots either. For the first time since stage four, the Slovenian will be in his normal kit, although that is obviously that of world champion, not just the ordinary UAE Team Emirates-XRG strip.

After Wednesday's stage five time trial Pogačar was not only in the race lead, and therefore yellow, but also in charge of the king of the mountains competition, and the points classification too.

This was not a complete accident. Pogačar might have only just ceded yellow – Van der Poel leads by one second – but he was comfortable letting the race lead go, that's why the break was allowed to build up seven minutes of advantage. Wellens deliberately took points on the Côte de la Rançonnière, 56km into the stage, to put himself back in the lead of the KOM competition, while green was always going to go back to one of the sprinters after the intermediate sprint.

UAE have said that they were not deliberately trying to give up yellow, but it is not bad thing that it happened; it means less protocols for Pogačar after stage six and before stage seven, less media time, less podium time, fewer jerseys to sign and VIPs to greet.

As my colleague Chris Marshall-Bell wrote yesterday, since turning pro in 2019, he’s only ceded a race’s leader’s jersey on three occasions, so this is a novel occasion. In truth, Pogačar might very well seize back the yellow jersey on stage seven, given the steep finish in Mûr-de-Bretagne, but one day less in yellow is the kind of precious breather that counts at the Tour de France.

The polka dot jersey, meanwhile, is a distraction that Pogačar could do without. He is not at the Tour to win mountains points, and while he won it in 2020 and 2021, this was by accident more than anything else. Wellens in the polka dots will give the Belgian some time in the spotlight, and save more time for the Slovenian. In fact, the team had tried to organise things so Pogačar was out of the polka dots for the time trial on stage five, but this didn't work.

Pogačar is also no longer in the lead of the points classification, but this was never going to last, given the amount of points on offer at intermediate sprints – Milan is aiming for green, so it only makes sense that he is now back in control there.

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Adam Becket
News editor

Adam is Cycling Weekly’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling, he's happy. Before joining CW in 2021 he spent two years writing for Procycling. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds.

Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to riding bikes.

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