Visma defends Vingegaard’s equipment choice after Dumoulin criticism: ‘It was the right choice’

In Stage 7 of the Tour de France, we didn’t see much of Visma | Lease a Bike, which was, of course, perfectly fine in a sprinter’s stage. The Dutch team had had to deal with a major setback from Tadej Pogacar the day before. A genuinely surprised Tom Dumoulin criticized the Dane’s choice of equipment, but Visma | Lease a Bike resolutely countered that criticism.

Let’s go back to Thursday, when the Tour de France featured a stage over the Tourmalet—the very first real test among the general classification contenders. As many expected, Pogacar attacked on the Tourmalet and ultimately left the competition far behind. Vingegaard finished second, though he was more than two and a half minutes behind the world champion.

Still, it was a gear choice made by the Dane that had Dumoulin asking the most questions on Thursday evening. On the show *De Avondetappe*, the former Giro winner had commented on the single chainring on Vingegaard’s bike. “Jonas specifically chose a single chainring up front.”

Dumoulin explained the consequences of that choice. “That automatically means you only have eleven or twelve gears in the rear to work with. So you have to make do with that on the steepest climbs, but also on the fastest descents where you actually want to be in a very high gear.”

According to the Dutchman, that was “not a very wise choice.” “If you’re climbing the Tourmalet at 25 kilometers per hour and you notice that you’re pedaling just a bit too hard, you want to shift down smoothly. But because you only have twelve gears in total, the gaps between them are much too large. The result is that, when climbing, you very often end up pedaling either just a bit too lightly or just a bit too hard.” '

The advantage would be a very slight weight reduction, but according to Dumoulin, that argument didn’t hold water. “We’re probably talking about 40 to 50 grams here. Of course, that’s hardly anything; just take one less sip from your water bottle and you’ve already negated that gain,” was his assessment.

A day later, before the start of Stage 7, team director Marc Reef responded to Wielerflits. “It’s something Jonas has been riding with for several climbs and several stages now. That’s certainly not what makes the difference,” he stated in very clear terms. Visma | Lease a Bike believes in that single chainring. “It saves weight, but it’s mainly about what the rider can handle and what he can manage in terms of cadence.”

“Jonas has experience with this and has been riding with it for years; that’s something we won’t change in stages like this,” Reef continued. There is therefore absolutely no question of a lack of gearing for Vingegaard. “Definitely not. It was really the right choice this way,” the team director concluded.