"I think that’s the worst scenario you can imagine": Pogacar in green jersey raises eyebrows

Biniam Girmay won the green jersey in the French race last season but is already 45 points behind Pogacar after stage seven. "The fact that Tadej also wins on Mur-de-Bretagne is bad news for us. He gets 50 points for that, and it now makes him the favorite for the green jersey," said the Eritrean.

That makes Saturday (Laval) and Sunday (Chateauroux) extremely important stages for the sprinters, who may already be seeing their last chances for stage wins. There are still two flatter stages in week three, including the renewed finish in Paris, but we know from previous editions that those can just as easily become days for breakaways.

The reason Pogacar now has green isn’t hard to find. The Tour’s points system was changed based on the number of altitude meters per stage, meaning stages like Mur-de-Bretagne (which became a GC day) also awarded fifty points.

"I don’t think ASO thought it could swing Pogacar’s way," Visbeek says on behalf of Intermarché-Wanty. "We’re now seeing after the first days that this points system favors Pogacar, and I think they didn’t think it through enough. They focused more on guys like Mathieu van der Poel, the punchers."

"Stages 8 and 9 are very important days, but you never know how it will go. Maybe Pogacar will decide to take it easier at some point, and I also don’t know what Mathieu’s plan is. If he’s going to go for it too, it will be a long, tough Tour for him. Is that what he wants?" Visbeek wonders out loud. Van der Poel contested the intermediate sprint on Thursday, but afterwards said that was on team boss Roodhooft’s advice and that Alpecin-Deceuninck plans to focus on Kaden Groves on Saturday and Sunday.

Intermarché-Wanty is adjusting its tactics based on Pogacar and Van der Poel. "For us, it’s simple: we want to sprint for those intermediate points," says Visbeek. "That Pogacar can still take a lot of points in the second and third week, that is a given. But all we can do is grab points wherever we can. We’ll have to fight hard for them and then see if it will be enough."

"Bini showed last year that the Tour lasts three weeks," Visbeek knows. "He’s come through the first days well, which was really important. We were afraid he’d already lose points there, but with a second and sixth place, he’s fully in the race." Girmay is currently third in the points classification, with Lidl-Trek’s Jonathan Milan still ahead of him.

"You can already see Milan is getting pretty nervous," says Visbeek. "That’s a team with a 40 to 45 million euro budget, and they haven’t won a stage yet, so the pressure is really on. They’re in a different mindset compared to us. Our team is mentally prepared that this is going to be a thing all the way to Paris. That’s a difference too," states the Intermarché-Wanty director, for whom the green jersey is a top prize.

If it’s up to Visbeek, Girmay will be wearing green in Paris. And he’s not just preaching for his own team. "I don’t think it’s good for cycling if Pogacar ends up in Paris with three jerseys. In my opinion, that’s the worst scenario you can imagine. For cycling as a whole, but also for all the companies we’re trying to motivate to invest more money into the sport. If there’s just one guy sweeping up all the jerseys and publicity, it’s a disaster for cycling."