Did UAE Emirates-XRG get help from an unexpected source in the Tour de France? Visma’s Frenchman on how mountain stage unfolded

Visma | Lease a Bike saw Tadej Pogačar make a first serious move toward overall victory in the Tour de France on Thursday during stage 6. After the finish, Bruno Armirail, one of Jonas Vingegaard’s domestiques, was critical of Uno-X Mobility’s racing tactics. According to the Frenchman, they helped UAE Emirates-XRG and Pogačar into an ideal position.

The opening hours of the stage, which later also took the riders over the Col du Tourmalet, were raced hard from the very start. Victor Campenaerts attacked immediately after the flag dropped and was eventually joined by Mads Pedersen and Huub Artz. The latter then dropped back after receiving several warnings because of his riding position.

That left Campenaerts and Pedersen out front. “It was definitely difficult to take points. I hoped Jasper [Philipsen], [Biniam] Girmay and Max Kanter would not survive the climb, because Netcompany INEOS were riding so hard, but they came back and also took points. Still, I did gain points. In the end it was a decent day, but I did spend some energy,” Pedersen acknowledged. After his effort, Campenaerts also had little left to contribute.

At Visma | Lease a Bike, there was particular surprise at the fact that Uno-X — the team of yellow jersey wearer Torstein Træen — had already done so much work in the phase before that. Jonas Abrahamsen kept the gap under control. “We wanted to get into the breakaway, we tried to go, but it was very difficult,” Armirail said to Cyclism’Actu.

“To be honest, there wasn’t really a breakaway today. It was a little unusual, a strange scenario for this kind of stage,” said Armirail, who openly questioned what the other teams were doing. “When you see the sprinters’ teams riding from the very start on the flat... Or Uno-X chasing Ben O’Connor when he only had a 30-second lead just before the Col d’Aspin...”

“Ben O’Connor could very well have gone into the breakaway. They didn’t have to do all that work for UAE Emirates-XRG,” concluded the French rouleur, who saw Vingegaard lose 2 minutes and 40 seconds to Pogačar.

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]