Not Pogacar, but Visma | Lease a Bike left licking their wounds in the Tour: "It’s not the end of the world"

Visma | Lease a Bike set a fast pace on the Col du Soulor with Victor Campenaerts and Sepp Kuss, among others, but this caused problems for their second man, Matteo Jorgenson. The American said after the race that "he had a bad day, knew it from the start, and didn't want to make excuses."

“We tried to make the race tough. That didn't work out very well because Matteo didn't have a good day and suddenly got dropped,” Niermann told NOS. “Of course, we can't read the riders' minds. So we slowed the pace a bit.”

“The plan was still to attack with Jonas on the final climb, but Pogacar was clearly on another level,” the German sports director continued. “Pogacar was clearly the strongest. Jonas felt good, but I think he suffered a bit on the final climb.”

“We didn't expect this. But it is what it is; we have to deal with it, Niermann summed up his team's day. “The best rider won in the end, we have to be honest about that. I haven't spoken to Jonas yet, so I don't know exactly how he felt. It probably wasn't his best day, but he's still the best of the rest.

"I don't have his metrics yet, but Tadej was simply the best," he added on ITV Cycling. "And we have to give credit to UAE and Pogacar. It's a heavy blow for us because we had hoped for more. But it's not the end of the world. It will be a tough job to turn this around."