“What are the motorcycles doing there?! It is unacceptable ! It distorts the race!” Laurent Jalabert got angry on the air of France Televisions during the live of the 14th stage of the Tour de France by witnessing the attack of Tadej Pogacar in the climb of the Col de Joux Plane. An attack which was reduced to nothing since a motorcycle carrying a photographer on the right of the road blocked the Slovenian forced to release his effort. It was finally Jonas Vingegaard who passed the summit in the lead, pocketing the bonus.
A few minutes after the arrival of the stage won by Carlos Rodriguez, the France Télévisions consultant returned to this temporary outburst. “I got on fire because it annoys me,” railed “Jaja” explaining himself in stride: “I put myself in the place of the runners. Frankly, it can have an impact on the final result. We are in the last five hundred meters, it is not possible to have a motorcycle that wants to take a close picture at the top of a pass where there is a bonus.
Laurent Jalabert was not the only one to rant on the air. On Eurosport, another Tour de France broadcaster, Guillaume Di Grazia also let loose against the clumsiness of the bike in front of the Pogacar-Vingegaard duo. “Damn it!” we heard at the time of the incident.
“It is the responsibility of the race marshals and the race management who were not able to manage the end of the race so that it was fair, regular and non-dangerous. What happened is unacceptable! We are in the last kilometer, there are regulations. The motorcycles and vehicles that are in front must get ahead. There we have an attack from Pogacar, and after 40m, he is forced to apply the brakes so as not to get into the ass of the motorcycles! It is unacceptable! At the exit, the ranking at the top is not the ranking that there should have been”, for his part explained Cyrille Guimard, former team manager, very upset against the organizers.
