At the end of the stage, Tadej Pogacar's thoughts immediately turned to Jonas Vingegaard. The Slovenian champion, who since 2021 has shared Tour de France victories with the Dane, did not hide his sadness at his great rival's withdrawal. «

Yes, it's really very sad to see Jonas out of the Tour. Since 2021 we've always competed for the victory. Perhaps at the beginning we didn't have the best relationship, but in the last two years we've become good rivals, great competitors and I think also a sort of friends. The Tour won't be the same without him».

Pogacar then returned to the subject of anti-doping controls carried out during the night before the stage, an issue that is causing discussion throughout the cycling world. He too had been woken in the early morning hours, while Vingegaard had received a visit from the controllers at two in the morning.

The Slovenian did not want to directly attribute his crash to the control, but hypothesized that it may have had an influence.

«It made me think about it just before, during another interview. Today we had the anti-doping control, he had it done at two in the morning, and it occurred to me that perhaps this too could be one of the reasons. When your sleep is interrupted, perhaps you're a bit less concentrated on the descent and his Tour is over. I don't want to blame this, but there could be a connection. It's really sad to see him go».

Pogacar then recounted how UAE Team Emirates-XRG tactically managed a stage that, at least initially, seemed like it could create some difficulties for the yellow jersey. «In fact, it helped us a lot that the breakaway didn't manage to get away in the first two hours. For us it was a perfect day. Then Visma decided to go for the stage win and that was even better.»

The UAE Emirates plan was to play for success with Isaac Del Toro. «We had Adam up front who could aim for the victory, but Quinn Simmons today was simply supersonic, we have to give him credit. Then we tried with Isaac, because this climb was perfect for his characteristics.»

The young Mexican, however, also had to deal with the consequences of the crash that occurred in the previous kilometers. «I think Isaac still had some pain after the crash and perhaps lost a bit of confidence in the final. But I think he still had a great day. Now he's wearing the white jersey and is also doing very well in the general classification. We can be satisfied».

Finally, Pogacar wanted to pay tribute to the day's winner, Remco Evenepoel, author of his first high mountain stage victory at the Tour de France.

«Hats off to Remco. Solaison is a climb of about thirty minutes, a real test for the general classification riders, and today he put in one of the best performances I've ever seen».

The Slovenian is convinced that the Belgian has now reached a new level. «I think sometimes Remco just needs a bit more confidence. When he has it, he flies. Today he proved to be a rocket and I believe that in the next week he'll be even more of a real thorn in my side».