TOULOUSE, France (Velo) — Uno-X climber Tobias Johannessen is facing a torrent of online abuse following his role in Tadej Pogačar’s high-speed crash during Wednesday’s chaotic 11th stage of the Tour de France.
The Norwegian rider was the one who veered right late in the stage and clipped Pogačar’s front wheel, sending the Tour favorite skidding violently across the tarmac.
Pogačar remounted and finished the stage with only superficial injuries, but Johannessen was immediately targeted online. UAE officials confirmed Pogačar did not suffer any broken bones.
Post-stage, the 25-year-old Norwegian took to X to publicly apologize.
“I am terribly sorry for what happened to [Pogačar]. I was trying to follow a move and I can see I was [too] close,” he wrote. “I thought everyone would move to the right, but I made a mistake and I would like to say sorry again. I hope he is as good as he can be after a crash like that.”
Honest, fair, humble, the right thing to say in a terrible situation, but that wasn’t enough for the internet court of opinion.
According to Johannessen, his in-box is overflowing with vitriolic messages and threats accusing him of incompetence and worse.
Johannessen, who is 10th overall at 5:03 back, posted a second message moments later.
“Of course, I would like to do it again and do it differently, but I cannot. That feels shit, but I would not wish anyone the amount of threats in my inbox,” he wrote. “I am terribly sorry but also terrified of the hate from all the people. This feels scary.”
Pogačar: ‘He didn’t see me’
Race video shows Johannessen riding past Pogačar’s left side and then sweeping right after a rider on the other side of the road was attacking into a right-hander.
Johannessen reacted, and Pogačar clipped Johannessen’s back wheel and went sprawling to the ground.
Post-stage images showed abrasions and cuts to the world champion’s left elbow, hip, shoulder, and knee.
Pogačar quickly remounted his bike and the peloton — once realizing what happened — eased up to allow the Tour’s top star to ride back to the bunch.
Such incidents are part of the race, and luckily everyone seems to be fine.
Spreading hate on social media, on the Tour de France or anywhere else however, is not acceptable.
Stay strong Tobias https://t.co/qCSPEN3Ilw
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 16, 2025
Since the crash happened beyond the 3km to go “safe zone,” the losses could have been significant if everyone piled on.
That’s quite a demonstration of the respect the bunch holds for Pogačar, especially considering that the race was “on” and how soon the peloton decided to slow down.
Of course, the stage was already won, and there wasn’t much to be gained by drilling it to the line with less than 5km to go.
Pogačar was thankful, but expressed frustration with how the crash happened.
“Unfortunately, one rider decided to follow from the left to the right of the road. I don’t know … he didn’t see me. He completely cut me off from my front wheel,” Pogačar said without naming Johannessen.
“Luckily, I just have a bit of skin off. I was scared, I thought I was going with my head into the sidewalk.”
Pogačar: ‘No more pee breaks’
Pogačar couldn’t resist his own social media barb referring to an incident early in the stage.
In the opening kilometers of the stage, the world champion stopped for a pee break, and suddenly Jonas Vingegaard and yellow jersey Ben Healy appeared to be pushing the pace at the front of the bunch.
They were not attacking Pogačar directly, but rather just following the wheels as one of the Tour’s craziest stages this year was going off.
Pogačar didn’t see it that way, writing on Instagram:
“Lesson learned for the rest of the Tour: Don’t stop for a pee anymore … ”
Who says nerves aren’t frayed heading into the Pyrénées on Thursday?