Tadej Pogačar rejected claims of arrogance from critics directed at his UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad. The criticism stemmed from an incident involving domestique Nils Politt shouting at riders breaking race etiquette. Pogačar emphasized that while controlling the race can be perceived as arrogance, their focus is on winning the Tour. He also suggested that critics should refrain from speaking on these matters, noting the possible perception of arrogance in his statement. The team is preparing for challenging mountain stages ahead in the competition.
Politt had already refuted the claims, suggesting to Sporza that he had only begun shouting because riders had broken the unwritten rule that there were no attacks while the yellow jersey stopped to answer a call of nature.
Pogačar responded, "I don't know, I mean arrogance is one thing, trying to win the Tour de France is another." He indicated that their efforts were for controlling the race, not stemming from arrogance.
"We tried to calm things down, but just because we need to control every single kilometre of this race, we don't try to be arrogant, we just want to make our race as easy as possible," said Pogačar.
Pogačar noted that the critics should perhaps "stay quiet" on the subject of criticisms, admitting that this comment would "sound super-arrogant."
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