Uno-X’s Tobias Halland Johannessen has been left “terrified” by the abuse he has received for his role in Tadej Pogačar’s crash at the Tour de France.
The Norwegian was riding in front of Pogačar with 4km to go on stage 11, when their wheels overlapped, and the world champion hit the tarmac.
After the race, Johannessen posted an apology to Pogačar on social media. “I am terribly sorry for what happened,” he wrote on X. “I was trying to follow a move and I can see that I was too close. I thought everyone would move to the right, but I made a mistake and would like to say sorry again. I hope he is as good as he can be after a crash like that.”
The Norwegian added that he “would not wish anyone the amount of threats I get in my inbox”.
“I am terribly sorry but also terrified of the hate from all the people. This feels very scary,” he said.
Responding to the post in a video shared by his UAE Team Emirates-XRG team-mate Tim Wellens, Pogačar said: “Hey mate, all good. Don’t stress. I hope people don’t give you shit. People, stop giving him shit! It was all good, a race incident, and we fight on.”
A medical examination on Wednesday evening confirmed Pogačar suffered “no serious injury” from the crash. He has bruising and road rash, but no concussion or fractures, and is able to continue the race.
Commenting on the incident after the stage, the Tour’s defending champion said a rider, who he didn’t explicitly name, “completely cut me off”.
“Unfortunately one rider decided to follow from left to right side of the road and he didn’t see me,” Pogačar said. “Luckily I just have a little bit of skin off. I was scared when I saw the sidewalk that I was going with my head directly to the sidewalk, but luckily my skin is tough and stopped me."
Despite his crash, which came outside of the 3km-to-go safety zone, Pogačar did not lose time on stage 11; his GC rivals slowed to wait for him to rejoin the group.
The world champion remains in second place overall, behind the race leader Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), as the peloton heads for its first mountain finish in the Pyrenees on Thursday.
