caught the last breakaway rider, Matteo Jorgenson from Visma | Lease a Bike, with a strong eight-kilometer solo effort in the final part of the mountain stage to 2000. “We take nothing away from the exceptional athlete he is,” Armstrong began in his podcast. “But I just scratched my head after seeing what he did.”
“We thought Matteo Jorgenson had it, but Pogacar apparently thought differently,” the American continued. “I’ve been in Pogacar’s position, with my race number on and a start and finish line. What we saw is the biggest mistake he has made in his career. Other teams don’t like it, fans—except for Slovenian ones—prefer not to see it, and the French media is not a big fan either. Trust me, it’s a big, unnecessary mistake,” Armstrong explained.
“I understand the arguments of ‘it’s a race,’ but you are also dealing with a political campaign. You shouldn’t give others a reason to start hating you, I repeat: you shouldn’t give others a reason to hate you. Or dislike you, or doubt you,” stated the former rider for Motorola and US Postal.
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Armstrong believes made a big mistake: “I’m going to share something I’ve never shared before”
Armstrong emphasizes he is a big fan of
“I’m going to share something I’ve never shared before, with the whole world,” Armstrong goes a step further. “We’re talking about the 2000 Tour de France, maybe Johan knows the story. I was working with Michele Ferrari. I pulled away from Marco and Jan and finished four minutes ahead of them, but on the bus I saw a message from Ferrari: big mistake, it said. That was it,” he recounts a similar case where the competition was dominated.
“A Tour is a marathon combined with NASCAR and a political campaign. It lasts three weeks. And that is difficult and it makes it different from other sports,” says Armstrong, who wants to clarify that he has nothing against . “In fact, I’m a fan. But I sit in front of the TV saying, don’t do it, don’t do it. Precisely because I’m his supporter. He can stand on the highest podium in Nice, that is his victory. But now, he would have been better off staying with his teammates.”
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