Bruno Armirail explains exactly why Vingegaard and Visma have every reason to be confident against Pogačar

"Bruno Armirail is doing better and better," said Visma | Lease a Bike team director Marc Reef on Friday after Stage 13. That’s great news for the team, because the Tour de France GC contendors will be back in action starting Saturday. IDL Pro Cycling spoke with the veteran French rider, who explained exactly why the Tour de France is far from over.

First, let’s talk about Arimirail himself, who crashed earlier in this Tour de France. We spoke with him on Wednesday morning before the start of Stage 12. How does he feel after 11 days of the Tour de France? Tired. “We’re tired, voilà, ” he said.

In his explanation, the 32-year-old Frenchman cited a well worn reason. “It’s true that we’ve had a very hot Tour de France right from the start. That’s why I think it’s a difficult Tour de France compared to previous editions. We know there’s fatigue, but that’s the same for everyone,” he immediately added to put things into perspective.

Visma | Lease a Bike handled the relatively easy stages 11, 12, and 13 well, and those so-called rest days were certainly welcome. After all, tough stages are coming up on Saturday and Sunday. “It’s true that we’ve now completed the easiest part. The third week is really tough, and even this weekend will be challenging,” Armirail said.

Trailing Tadej Pogačar by 3.36 minutes, Visma team leader Jonas Vingegaard heads into the next stage of the Tour. “Jonas is in good form. We’ll see what happens this weekend. In any case, we’re confident and we hope he’ll at least hold onto second place… and, why not, that he’ll take first place.”

"That won't be this weekend," Amaril said right away. "Because there’s a big difference, after all. But maybe toward the end of the Tour." Then there will be some challenging mountain stages in the Alps again, including long climbs. We haven’t seen those very often in this Tour yet, although Pogačar did make a difference on the Tourmalet.

Still, Armirail saw the positive side of it. “We saw on the Tourmalet that he didn’t finish the climb too far behind. The difference was made on the descent afterward,” the Frenchman recalled, still vividly remembering Stage 6. “If we really focus on the Tourmalet itself, he loses a little time due to Pogačar’s acceleration, but then he climbs at almost the same pace.”

And so, according to Armirail, there’s still a lot of confidence at Visma | Lease a Bike. He adds: “He’s often at his best in the third week, so we’ll see how it goes. We’re really confident.” In that case, Vingegaard’s fatigue shouldn’t be too severe, at least. “We’ll see how he recovers, how we recover, and how Tadej recovers.”

After all, as the experienced French rider also knows: “Jonas has, of course, ridden the Giro, so he might be a bit tired. The third week will be very tough, and during that time we’ll do everything we can to achieve the best possible result.”

We wrapped up with a question about Vingegaard himself: How does Armirail see his team leader in this Tour? “He’s a really calm rider and leader. That’s really great. He’s very zen, so that’s really cool. It’s better than a team leader who just puts pressure on everyone. He’s a really great person who also inspires confidence,” the friendly Frenchman concluded with praise.