Visma-Lease a Bike used their combined strength and some defensive but efficient tactics to avoid losing any time to Tadej Pogačar and any other overall rivals during the gravel stage 9 of the Tour de France near Troyes.
The Dutch team has dominated the Tour de France and Grand Tour racing in recent years but is following a different strategy in 2024, where defence is better than attack, and Pogačar is by far the biggest threat.
Jonas Vingegaard suffered serious injuries in the Itzulia Basque Country crash in early April and has only trained for six weeks. Visma-Lease a Bike’s strategy is to limit Vingegaard’s time losses to Pogačar in any way they can, in the hope that Vingegaard will come good in the final week of the Tour in the high mountain.
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After winning the Giro d’Italia, Pogačar is playing an opposite strategy and trying to gain time on his GC rivals whenever he can, perhaps before the fatigue of racing two Grand Tours begins to hurt him. It is creating an epic battle.
Vingegaard lost 50 seconds on the stage over the Galibier to Valloire and then 25 seconds in the Cote d’Or time trial. The Dane is 1:15 down on Pogačar in the GC standings, with Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) between them at 33 seconds and Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) fourth at 1:36.
On the gravel roads, Pogačar tried to surge away several times.
With 77km to race, he joined Evenepoel, with Vingegaard on his wheel. However, the Dane refused to collaborate, and the trio eventually eased up in a game of bluff and returned to the GC group.
Pogačar then made a huge effort and double attack on the Daudes gravel sector with 21km to go. Vingegaard struggled and was slightly distanced as Christophe Laporte tried to follow Pogačar, only to blow up. Fortunately, like some kind of Superhero figure emerging from nowhere to save the day, Matteo Jorgenson appeared and dragged Vingegaard up to Pogačar’s wheel.
Evenepoel and Roglič were dropped, and it was a huge moment in the GC battle. However, Vingegaard and Jorgenson decided or were ordered from their team car, not to work with Pogačar. Visma-Lease a Bike had riders in the group and so there was no need to risk going with Pogačar, only to be distanced near the finish.
It was a logical but defensive tactic and all the big-four Tour de France contenders finished together in Troyes.
"The rival of the Tour is Pogačar,” Jorgenson explained post-stage.
“We weren’t going to ride with Pogcar on our wheel and have Wout Van Art and Christophe Laporte behind us. That was not smart at all. We had to play it smart.”
Vingegaard agreed on the defensive strategy.
“He was riding so fast himself, we didn’t think about it,” Vingegaard said. “We thought it was better for us to have more teammates in case something happened.
“It would have been better to ride because Primož and Remco were not there, but on the other hand, our goal was not to lose time, so maybe it was better to wait.”
Jorgenson praised his team leader for his calm after swapping bikes with Jan Tratnik mid-stage and for racing with logic all the way to the finish. Also, for his ability to take on bigger and more aggressive riders on the French gravel.
“He was doing incredible for the situation. He did an incredible job, I’m proud of him,” Jorgenson.
“He was riding with a different position, different bars and a different reach. It was impressive. He’s just so light too, he’s not suited to gravel but he did it.”
Visma-Lease a Bike used their team strength to dominate the racing on the gravel and keep Pogačar under control.
“It wasn’t that stressful because we had the strongest team for this stage,” Jorgenson argued.
“We were on the front of every single gravel sector, and we had confidence that we could get ourselves out of any problem.”
Jorgenson joined Visma-Lease a Bike for the 2024 season and immediately confirmed his talents by winning Paris-Nice. On the Tour de France gravel, he kept Vingegaard's overall hopes alive.
“Matteo did some fantastic work for Jonas and we’re so happy to have him in the team,” senior directeur sportif Merijn Zeeman said.
“When Pogačar attacked, he played for a moment and then closed the gap. That was superb. Pogačar was incredible, and we need the whole team to control him and slow him down.”
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