Four days ago, after Tadej Pogačar's latest knock-out victory at Andorra, when UAE Team Emirates-XRG head of racing Joxean Fernández Matxin warned that nothing could ever be taken for granted in cycling, to be honest, it was hard not to think that this was simply stating a formality.
Just look at Vingegaard, Matxin had pointed out, just when he was getting stronger in the Tour de France this July, "there was a roundabout, a crash and that was it." One of the Tour's most established figures, a five-times podium finisher and double winner had suddenly fallen by the wayside for 2026.
