Tour de France: 'Blatantly a mistake' - Alberto Bettiol's 'stupid' chase addressed by Jonathan Vaughters

EF Education-Easypost team boss Jonathan Vaughters admits Alberto Bettiol knows he “screwed up” on Stage 5 of the Tour de France after defying team orders. During a chaotic stage on the cobbles, Bettiol inexplicably helped UAE Team Emirates' Tadej Pogacar after hitting the front of the chasing group. Ad/> Bettiol had two team-mates, Magnus Cort and Neilson Powless, ahead of him in the breakaway, with the latter in with a shot of the claiming yellow jersey by the end of the day's racing.

Tour de France'Horrendous' — McEwen lambasts Bettiol's pulling for Pogacar14 HOURS AGO However, Bettiol’s decision ultimately scuppered Powless’ chances, and with veteran Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech) going on to win the stage, Vaughters tweeted it would make for an “interesting debrief” before telling Eurosport on Thursday morning that Bettiol acknowledges he was in the wrong. “We had a long chat about it afterwards. Berto is coming back from a pretty long illness, he hasn’t felt great in races for a while, and yesterday he really felt like his old self, had good legs and just got a little stupid in some heated moments,” said Vaughters.

“The first sector he was trying to keep [Stefan] Bissegger in position which was actually part of our plan. Whatever it was, the sixth to go sector, that was just blatantly a mistake on his part, which he owns. 'Horrendous' — McEwen lambasts Bettiol's pulling for Pogacar ‘We've been robbed’ – Wiggins questions cobbles after Roglic disaster Opinion: Ineos Grenadiers emerge unscathed from Jumbo-Visma’s day of hell “He was like, ‘I shouldn’t have done that, it was stupid, I thought I could just go across by myself to the break’.