'You have to be positive, otherwise we wouldn't start' – Visma-Lease a Bike realistic but not giving up after Tour de France time losses

There is no sense of defeat at Visma-Lease a Bike in this Tour de France, despite Jonas Vingegaard losing time to Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) on stages 12 and 13.

There is definitely some realism about the task they are up against – a seemingly untouchable Pogačar, which may force Vingegaard to adjust his expectations – but rather than give up all hope or not try to fight for second place, the team are keen to keep the belief in the eight stages still to come.

Now just over four minutes in the lead after Vingegaard ceded 36 more seconds in Friday's mountain TT, a Pogačar win may look inevitable to some, but that's not a mindset that the team fighting him in France can take, even if they know the evidence of the Pogačar era is stacked against them.

"You have to be positive, otherwise we wouldn't even start the Tour after the Dauphiné, you know?" said Sepp Kuss, one of Vingegaard's longest-standing domestiques, also saying, "You can never be surprised anymore" about Pogačar's dominant ride on stage 12.

"So you have to believe. Everybody in the race believes in their chances, so it's all relative, but yeah. We have a good time together at the dinner table, the vibe is good, and we know from experience that there's still a lot of key moments and stages coming."

Visma are not trying to deny that Pogačar is clearly in the driving seat right now, or be falsely optimistic about Vingegaard's chances, but rather be realistic about the fact that there is a lot of racing still to come.

"It's definitely a big deficit, and on paper you could say it's over, but it's bike racing, anything can happen," Kuss said. "I mean, we saw Pogačar, he crashed there on the stage after the rest day. You can be behind a split, you can have a bad moment, anything can happen. We still have the hardest stages ahead of us, so you just have to focus on what you can control and take advantage when the situation is good."

'We're doing our best in the race'

Though Pogačar's strength has been undeniable so far in this race, Visma have still faced some criticism for their tactics on the tough stages, often seen trying to make things hard in key moments – in theory to isolate him, but sometimes doing his work for him by dropping other rivals.

However, even if the strategy hasn't always worked, due on stage 12 to a combination of a lack of strength in Visma's train and the opposite problem at UAE, they aren't regretful of the way they've raced.

"I think yesterday we rode a pace that was the pace that we wanted to dictate, the idea was to isolate Pogačar already on the Soulor, so if we were all on a super good day, I think we could have done some damage there, but of course we had to pivot the strategy a bit which is no problem at all," Kuss explained.

"But I think when we make our moves, in the race, it's moments where it's an equal effort for everybody. We're not pulling the bunch around for 200k. Of course, you have to go deep, but we use the right riders for the right situations, and a lot of the time it hurts being sixth wheel more than it hurts being first or second wheel on moments that we go, so I think we do it pretty smart.

His teammate and compatriot Matteo Jorgenson offered a similar perspective – not accepting defeat against Pogačar, but truthful about the fact that there is only so much other teams can do.

"Look, we're doing our best in the race, and I'm really proud of how we've raced so far and I don't think we should be disappointed at all," he said. "There's nothing you can do if you give your best and keep fighting every day."

Jorgenson's revival

Despite Vingegaard shipping a little more time on stage 13 – which he did not view as a major failure – the other positive for Visma was Jorgenson's recovery.

The American had struggled early on stage 12, unable to fulfil his pacing duties on the climbs as planned, but had a much better day on stage 13, riding to sixth on the stage.

"I wanted to test myself and get myself back in the fight after yesterday," Jorgenson explained after his TT. "I was disappointed last night, I just felt like in some ways I gave up, and I just had a really bad day yesterday, I was already really fighting full on the first climb, so I wanted to come around and prove to myself again that I had still good legs and just wanted to test myself against these guys to see where I was at.

"I think I was where I belonged today. I was not fighting for the podium or anything, so it was a good test. I was at least back to a level that I can be proud of today."

Whether the Paris-Nice winner being on form may make any material difference to Vingegaard's Tour is yet to be seen, but it was at least a mental positive for Jorgenson.

"Last night was a little bit disappointing from my own part. I had a really bad day so it took me a while to come around, but I woke up this morning, it was a new day and a new opportunity to suffer and enjoy the Tour de France, so it was nothing bad."

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