🎥 Pogacar faces online criticism after "causing" Bilbao's crash; Slovenian self-critical

In a Tour stage that, except for the historical finish, was otherwise uneventful, there was a near-miss incident shortly after we got halfway through the race. The yellow jersey wearer, Tadej Pogacar, miraculously avoided a crash. The Slovenian UAE Team Emirates superstar managed to evade a road obstacle just in time thanks to his bike-handling skills, but his maneuver did result in Pello Bilbao crashing, as the Spaniard went down as a consequence.

Fortunately, there were no other significant victims, which is nothing short of a miracle. Nonetheless, Pogi faced considerable criticism online for his actions. For instance, the video posted on Sporza's Instagram account, which shared the incident footage, was met with backlash. "A remarkable display of bike-handling skills," wrote the Belgian sports outlet, but the comments clearly disagreed. "Through a remarkable display of inattentiveness, he is also the cause of the crash behind him..." read the most popular comment.

"Such great bike-handling skills, bringing down other riders," echoed another highly liked comment, while the organization also faced heavy criticism. "Organization... where is the marshal here?" was a frequently repeated remark. "Well organized again, Tour de France..."

Pogacar self-critical after incident involving road obstacle (and Bilbao's crash)

Pogiboy himself barely reacted to the incident. "It was a calm, quiet day, but with some pitfalls. In the end, it all turned out well. It wasn't as stressful as, for instance, during the stage to Turin. It was quite calm. If we had wanted to stay at the back, that would have been possible too. It was just about riding to the finish," was his initial reaction afterward.

At the press conference, which IDLProCycling.com also attended, the man from Komenda in Slovenia was again asked about the incident involving the road obstacle. Even there, the all-rounder preferred not to dwell on it too much. "Maybe my bike-handling skills were indeed okay, although my reaction time was actually far too slow," he self-critically noted. "I almost went down, but fortunately managed to avoid it just in time. I’m glad the day is over. One less day to go."

Watch as Pogacar narrowly avoids road obstacle, but appears to bring down Bilbao