Tour de France 2021 - ‘I’m going to need a couple of days!’ – Dan Lloyd lost for words after Tadej Pogacar’s performance
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Updated 03/07/2021 at 19:52 GMT
Speaking on The Breakaway Daniel Lloyd and Brian Smith tried to put into words just how impressive the performance from Tadej Pogacar was on Stage 8 of the Tour de France. As well as that Smith was particularly keen to talk about just how good the stage as a whole was. You can watch the Tour de France live and ad-free on the Eurosport app and Eurosport.co.uk.
'Off the charts' - The Breakaway reacts to Tadej Pogacar
Eurosport expert Daniel Lloyd was at a loss for words while speaking about the performance of Tadej Pogacar on The Breakaway.
Pogacar attacked with just under 35km to go on Stage 8 of the Tour de France and blew a big hole into the general classification standings, moving into the yellow jersey that he won last year.
Lloyd and Brian Smith joined Orla Chennaoui on The Breakaway after the stage and he was asked about the performance from the Slovenian.
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“It was incredible wasn’t it?” Lloyd replied.
“Our job here on The Breakaway post-race show is to pick up what happens, decipher it and explain it clearly to the viewers etc.
I’m going to need a couple of days I think before I can do that!
“Because what he did was just so, off the charts really. In some ways not unexpected. I did kind of expect this kind of performance from Tadej Pogacar.
“I think it was very different the fact that [Primoz] Roglic has been injured and not on the top of his form. I wonder how different today’s stage could have been if that wasn’t the case but this man has done it for the first time here today.
Smith agreed but he was keen to point out that it wasn’t just the performance of Pogacar. The entirety of the stage was fantastic to watch with multiple different races happening at once.
“He’s an incredible athlete and during commentary I was running out of superlatives to use. I wanted to keep it fresh and I was saying ‘incredible, incredible, incredible’ but it was an incredible performance and what an incredible stage.
“Taking Pogacar’s performance out of it, we had everything! Right from the start, we had everything today. Everyone was looking at the breakaway for some stage today but it was fascinating to watch and very difficult to work out what was happening.
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“Then I just saw the time of Pogacar… [chuckles] he’s coming, the train’s coming!”
Pogacar is now 1’48” ahead of Wout van Aert in the general classification and the Belgian Is the only rider who is within four minutes of the leader.
Speaking after the race Pogacar said that he expected more from his rivals today.
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Pogacar: I was surprised by the amount of time I put in
“Yeah I suspected it after yesterday. We did a lot of attacking, they attacked us, they thought they could break us as a team.
“I thought they will show more today but in the end I guess they were affected by yesterday and from today’s cold and rain.”
Finally he was asked whether Tadej Pogacar is now Tadej Pogacar’s biggest rival and he laughed and said “Yeah I think yes.
“We will see now we’re in yellow and we’re prepared to defend because we showed we are a super strong team.”
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