Stage 4 of the Vuelta a España began with UAE Team Emirates-XRG patrolling the peloton and with their leader Tadej Pogačar winning by a country mile, but this was not a tale of total domination. In between, it was another team, Decathlon CMA CGM, who took control of proceedings, which has triggered something of a tactical debate.
The French team took charge towards the top of the opening climb of the Port d’Envalira with 85km to go and continued their efforts onto the Collada de Beixalis, where Pogačar turned the tables with an attack that turned into a stage-winning and potentially race-ending solo victory.
Decathlon’s leader, Felix Gall, attempted to follow Pogačar at first but had to relent before trying to drop his other rivals on the Coll d’Ordino, but the Austrian had to settle for coming home in a six-man group behind Pogačar.
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Question marks were raised at the finish line by Iván Romeo, the Movistar teammate of Enric Mas, who finished alongside Gall.
"They made the race for them a bit," Romeo told Eurosport España, indicating that Decathlon’s efforts had only served to do UAE’s hard yards for them.
"I don’t know if people at home understood it – some of us didn’t either, but there you go. Everyone has their own tactics, and that’s how it is.
"It’s not a bad criticism or anything," Romeo added. “Simply that it’s a bit surprising, when there is such a superior team. I think it surprised us all. We were all commenting on it in the group. But hey, it’s their race."
A response came from Léo Bisiaux, Decathlon’s young French talent, who dismissed the notion that the team was under any illusions of realistically believing they could challenge Pogačar for the overall title.
"Not really," he said when asked if the team was racing as if Pogačar was not there. "It was to do our own race. I think he won with a decent gap. Looking for the red jersey is not the objective.
"We really wanted to make the race hard to allow Felix to create gaps," Bisiaux added. "We knew that these aren’t necessarily his favourite kind of efforts. We’re looking forward to the high mountains, and then he will be able to show where he is. But today, he still showed he is very strong."
This is not the first time that Decathlon CMA CGM’s tactics have been called into question in the Grand Tours this season.
At the Giro d’Italia, they took similar control in the final week as Jonas Vingegaard was in full domination mode, while on the penultimate stage of the Tour de France, Pogačar himself questioned their pace-making on the Col de Sarenne.
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