Should Visma | Lease a Bike keep knocking on a door that won’t open? "To be honest, I didn't even think for a moment he would break"

The Dutch team unleashed all its support riders on the second climb of the day, the Madeleine, to make the race as hard as possible. Wout van Aert, Tiesj Benoot, Victor Campenaerts, Simon Yates, and Sepp Kuss all took turns launching Vingegaard, who also managed to have Matteo Jorgenson up the road.

“We tried everything, but Tadej was the strongest again,” said Head of Racing Grischa Niermann to NOS. “When you have to claw back 4.5 minutes, you can’t wait for the final climb. We knew the chance of Pogacar cracking on the Madeleine was small, but we had to try.”

In hindsight, Niermann admitted it was against his better judgement. “To be honest, I never even thought for a moment, he would break, but when we commit to a plan, we don’t stop after two minutes. It was a fair race, and in the end, Tadej turned out to be just a bit stronger than Jonas.”

In the descent, the team let everyone regroup, allowing Ben O'Connor to take advantage and win the stage. “Nobody wanted to pull, and we weren’t going to keep riding with Pogacar in our wheel. We thought it was better to let the chasing group return,” said Grischa Niermann.

According to Niermann, cracking Pogacar on the Col de la Loze was always going to be difficult. “That climb wasn’t suitable for an attack, except maybe in the last 5.5 kilometers. It was clear Jonas would still try. We gave it everything, but the strongest rider is in yellow. We have to live with that. We’ll try again tomorrow, but… the chances are high that the outcome will be the same,” he concluded.