Pogačar dismisses anger as reason for late attack in Vuelta stage

Tadej Pogačar once again gained time on his rivals in the seventh stage of the Vuelta a España, accelerating on the final ascent to the Aramon Valdelinares to widen his overall lead. Despite not targeting the stage win, his late surge fueled speculation that he was reacting angrily to the race's tempo.

Pogačar, however, dismissed these suggestions after crossing the finish line. "I wasn't angry at all," he stated. "I would have happily ridden at the pace of my teammate towards the summit, but Decathlon decided to race and pushed hard." He explained that the pace set by Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, followed by an attack from Felix Gall, created a situation where gaps began to form among the general classification contenders. Pogačar responded to Gall's prompt to take the lead, continuing to the finish.

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I wasn't angry at all. I would have happily ridden at the pace of my teammate towards the summit, but Decathlon decided to race and pushed hard.

With this move, Pogačar gained six seconds on Gall and a further 16 seconds on Enric Mas, who is second overall. Mas had suggested after the stage that Pogačar might have attacked to send a message, a notion the Slovenian leader firmly rejected. Pogačar now leads Mas by 3 minutes and 50 seconds, with Primož Roglič in third place, 4 minutes and 50 seconds behind.

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I followed Felix and saw that differences were forming among the candidates for the general classification. He showed me to go ahead, so I contributed my part, a gap opened, and then I just continued to the finish. Everything was completely normal.

While Pogačar lost the green jersey for the points classification to Wout van Aert, he emphasized that this was never his primary goal. "It was never the goal, so you can remove the word 'still'. The main goal is the red jersey and nothing else," he said when asked about his ambitions for the points classification.

The stage victory went to Norway's Andreas Leknessund, who attacked from the breakaway group on the final climb to secure his first Grand Tour stage win. His teammate Tobias Johannessen finished second, followed by Van Aert in third. Pogačar noted that he did not want to unnecessarily exhaust his team, as Sunday's ninth stage is expected to be one of the toughest of the Vuelta, featuring a demanding final climb.

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It was never the goal, so you can remove the word 'still'. The main goal is the red jersey and nothing else.