Poor tactics or not, Visma | Lease a Bike no match for the "new" Pogacar: "He looks like a different rider"

Before the race, Visma | Lease a Bike announced that they had a plan – it would be all or nothing. “The only tactic they could play was to send men ahead,” Wiggins analyzed in the podcast THEMOVE. “That's what they did. Jonas was obviously hoping that Tadej would have a bad day and that he could take advantage of that. That didn't happen.” Pogacar was able to follow Vingegaard's first breakaway with apparent ease.

At the top of the Col de la Madeleine, Vingegaard joined domestique Matteo Jorgenson, who then set the pace. “I think they did well up to that point,” said the 2012 Tour winner. “They stuck to the plan, to what they said they were going to do. The problem was in the valley, where they didn't have enough men to keep the pace high.”

Bruyneel agrees. The former sports director felt that the Dutch team lost focus there. “Jorgenson made the mistake of jumping with the other guys. Everything slowed down, and that gave Pogacar everything they wanted to avoid.” The second attack by the 2022 and 2023 Tour winner was a long time coming, too long. The chance of winning the yellow jersey became smaller and smaller.

Was Visma | Lease a Bike's tactic not good enough? It seems so, but one must also take into account the supreme Pogacar, who was riding confidently on the wheel. "He seemed completely in control," says Bruyneel. Wiggins adds: "He looks like a different rider. He rode much more conservatively; he rides the way he should ride. He also gets the most out of his teammates. He doesn't panic when he's isolated and gets everything out of guys like Narváez and Yates."

The dominance of UAE Team Emirates - XRG was surprising: they let their rivals do all the work until the final climb. Then Pogacar's domestiques took over again. It was a bad sign for the Killer Bees, who, according to the podcasters, need to change their plans. Because the Tour victory now seems downright impossible. “If I were them, I would go for the stage. Send climbers into the breakaway,” said Bruyneel.

Apart from the two stars, there was another exciting battle for the podium. Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe took a big hit from Oscar Onley, who closed the gap on Florian Lipowitz to 22 seconds in the GC. "Onley rode the best stage today. Out of everyone,’ praised Wiggins. ‘I think he saved himself on the Madeleine."

Primoz Roglic was initially in the early breakaway, but when Lipowitz joined after a long chase, there was no cooperation. ‘It looked like they were riding their own race. Lipowitz rode the second half of the race on his own, whether he was chasing the breakaway or riding at the front.’ At the foot of the Col de la Loze, the white jersey wearer even made a breakaway. “I think Lipowitz gave everything he had every day to be at the front, every day of the Tour. Even on the Madeleine, where he was dropped.”

In the end, Lipowitz's breakaway cost him dearly: he was caught and lost 1.40 minutes to the young Scot. “That attack was a mistake,” Bruyneel believes. “I don't know if it came from the team car or not. However, he's an impulsive rider, as we've seen in races like Paris-Nice. He attacks when it's not necessary. When he went, I thought there should have been an instruction from the car that it was pointless.”