Bettiol apologised to Powless for riding with Pogacar on Tour de France cobbles

Alberto Bettiol, Tadej Pogacar
Alberto Bettiol with Tadej Pogacar at the head of the peloton on stage 5 of the Tour de France. (Image credit: Getty)

Alberto Bettiol apologised to his EF Education-EasyPost teammates for riding on the front of the peloton in the company of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) on the cobbles on stage 5 of the Tour de France, but he has hit back against Robbie McEwen’s insinuation that he had deliberately collaborated with the Slovenian.

In his role as an analyst for Eurosport, McEwen questioned Alberto Bettiol’s tactics, given that his teammates Neilson Powless and Magnus Cort were up the road in what proved to be the winning break. “You can only assume that he's possibly going to UAE next year,” McEwen said.

Stephen Farrand
Head of News

Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.