De Cauwer saw Visma | Lease a Bike burn through their riders in the first Alpine test of the Tour de France

Belgian cycling analyst and former pro José De Cauwer, speaking to Sporza, shared his thoughts. "This didn’t turn out to be an all-time epic stage. It looked like it might, until it became clear that Visma had gone too deep. They ran out of riders, or maybe their leader just didn’t have the legs. Everything kind of came to a halt in the valley."

"They gambled and lost. Not a huge loss, but they failed to gain ground. And that was the whole point. They went all-in, burned through everyone they had at the right moments," explained the former team director. "But then in the valley, Vingegaard was left with just Jorgenson ahead of him. He gets there on the descent, which was fine, but then Jorgenson just rode away. I don’t get that. Jorgenson didn’t seem strong enough to be a real springboard for Vingegaard."

"And then, the group came back together, and suddenly Pogacar’s team looked stronger than Vingegaard’s. At that point, they started a new race. Although it wasn’t really racing anymore, just control. Pogacar didn’t go for the stage win because the pace had dropped in the valley. If Jorgenson had simply kept the tempo high, those guys wouldn’t have gotten such a big gap. Then there would have been a real chance for the stage win. But they didn’t take that risk, or couldn’t. And we saw the result."

De Cauwer believes Thursday’s efforts could have an impact on Friday’s stage. "Tomorrow will be tough again after what we saw today. Who was nervous about it this morning? I’d say both Vingegaard and Pogacar. Pogacar looked eager, even a bit fired up, during the pre-race interviews. He wanted to see who could drop him. Maybe he’s ready to make a statement. Today he seemed to be holding back a little, saving it to go all-in tomorrow," De Cauwer predicts.