Visma | Lease a Bike don't have an answer to Pogačar, says analyst and their own team director: 'We have to be realistic'

Visma | Lease a Bike took another blow on Saturday during Stage 14 of the Tour de France. The Dutch team tried a different approach, sending riders to the front and launching Jonas Vingegaard at a high pace on the final climb. However, Tadej Pogacar held his Danish rival to exactly the same time gap as earlier this week, as Thijs Zonneveld calculated.

There was no shortage of initiative at Visma | Lease a Bike, which sent three riders—Bruno Armirail, Victor Campenaerts, and Matteo Jorgenson—into the main breakaway. Campenaerts and Armirail kept the pace high for a long time to let UAE Emirates-XRG take the lead in the peloton. However, Pogačar’s team reeled in the breakaway, turning it into a head-to-head battle heading toward Le Markstein.

Visma | Lease a Bike used the final climb—just over 11 kilometers long with an average gradient of just over 7 percent—to keep the pace high, with help from Decathlon CMA CGM. Once Paul Seixas and Vingegaard had used up their domestiques, the Dane took the lead and kept the pace high. He didn’t shake off many general classification contenders, including Pogačar. Pogačar attacked away 2 kilometers from the summit and won.

According to Zonneveld, Visma | Lease a Bike did something fundamentally different on Saturday during Stage 14 compared to earlier this week during Stage 10. Back then, the pace on the penultimate climb was “relatively slow, until Pogacar’s attack at 1.5 kilometers,” according to the Dutch journalist. “The gap at the summit was 20 seconds.”

With the pace set high in Stage 14, Vingegaard and his teammates were hoping for a different outcome, but: “On the final climb, Visma | Lease a Bike took a different approach and rode hard until Pogacar’s attack at 1.5 kilometers. The gap: another 20 seconds.” Incidentally, Pogacar extended his lead even further in both stages after the summit, leaving Vingegaard 38 and 44 seconds behind.

Throughout the Tour de France, Visma | Lease a Bike—represented by CEO Richard Plugge and team director Marc Reef—had consistently made it clear that the goal remained to win the yellow jersey in Paris. But after Stage 14, Reef had to admit to NOS that something really needed to change in the dynamics of the race. “He was stronger again, even though we tried to challenge him along the way.”

"UAE kept the breakaway short, though it should have gone better, and we should have had someone with those eight who rode off. Then you would have had someone there even further into the race, and you might have been able to make a difference for Jonas later on. Although that wouldn’t have made much difference now, since the pack came back together again,” he said, sounding somewhat critical.

"Jonas did well on the final climb. But Pogacar is stronger," Reef added with a smile. "We have to be realistic—he is stronger—because we’re doing everything we can. So far, it just hasn’t worked out. The team is on the road to recovery; it’s a positive step that they’ve shown this. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going and the riders will continue to improve as the race progresses. Then we’ll be able to showcase that later in the race.”