Pogacar gives candid response to Visma

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Tadej Pogacar and Visma | Lease a Bike seemed to have buried the hatchet – at least temporarily – after Team UAE Emirates-XRG made several cynical and critical remarks about the Dutch squad during the first week of the Tour de France. When Vingegaard’s team waited for Pogacar after a crash on stage 11, tensions seemed to ease. But after stage 15, when the Slovenian was asked directly about Visma’s tactics during the second week, he gave a very honest answer.

Sunday was relatively smooth for Pogacar, despite riding with a sore throat and runny nose for the past few days. The yellow jersey avoided a crash in the opening stage of stage 15 and even waited for his GC rivals to rejoin the peloton after he ended up in a breakaway. He then watched from the bunch as teammate Tim Wellens took the stage win, which marked the fifth for UAE so far, with Pogi already claiming four himself.

Wellens wasn’t part of the break intentionally. He ended up there after the early crash. In contrast, Visma | Lease a Bike sent Wout van Aert and Victor Campenaerts up the road deliberately, just as they had launched several attacks in the Pyrenees with riders like Sepp Kuss and Simon Yates. Visma admitted they were often aiming for stage wins, while Pogacar rarely sent anyone in the break, keeping his team around him.

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Wout van Aert (right) sprinted to place four in stage 15

Pogacar doesn’t understand why Visma | Lease a Bike attacks so often

Ahead of a brutal third week, Pogacar was asked if he understood Visma | Lease a Bike’s approach. His answer was clear: “In a way, yes, but it is hard to know what they’re thinking,” he told TV2. “There was a moment when Vingegaard was trying to catch back up after being held up by a crash, while three Visma riders were up front. Tim and I tried to calm things down from the break so everyone could rejoin.”

However, Pogacar saw Van Aert and Campenaerts push on, along with Matteo Jorgenson. “I didn’t really know what to think of it. I blocked Matteo so the three of them couldn’t ride off together. Maybe by doing that I actually helped Jonas, because it was a pretty strange situation. If I were in Jonas’s shoes, I wouldn’t be the happiest guy at the dinner table tonight. Because I think he can still win the Tour.”

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Vingegaard agrees with Pogacar

Pogacar went on to say that Visma riders have spent a lot of energy in recent stages, energy that hasn’t necessarily benefited Vingegaard. “He’s second in the GC and showed amazing form on Saturday. I get that they want stage wins, but they’re also in a position to win the entire Tour de France. If it were me, I wouldn’t be happy with that.”

Vingegaard responded to Pogacar’s comments on TV2 on Sunday evening and actually agreed with him. ‘I was indeed alone for a moment after the crash, and I think the sports directors should have sent one or two riders back from the breakaway group. However, we’ll discuss that later. It’s the responsibility of the sports directors, so the conversations with them will be most valuable. If I don’t make it back into the peloton with three teammates, you have to make a decision if that’s not going to be enough.

Grischa Niermann, sports director for Visma, took responsibility for Sunday’s decisions on the rest day. “I decided yesterday that they could race at the front because I expected the group with Jonas to come back easily after the crash,” said the German when asked.

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