Cowardly racing or clever? Visma | Lease a Bike explains why Vingegaard and Jorgenson did not ride with Pogacar

Visma | Lease a Bike came through the hard-fought gravel stage of the Tour de France unscathed in the end. Leader Jonas Vingegaard really had to ride for it, but eventually crossed the finish line in the same time as great rival Tadej Pogacar. IDLProcycling was present all day in and around Troyes!

The noted jersey wearer from Slovenia pounded on the Visma | LaB door several times, but was ultimately unable to open it completely. 'I think it was a great team performance in this stage,' judged and complimented team leader Grischa Niermann afterwards to the assembled cycling newsroom. 

On the third strip Jonas had a flat tire, but luckily we knew he could continue on Jan's bike (Tratnik, ed.). It has the same saddle height and that's where he finished. Tiesj (Benoot, ed.) also had a flat tire, so we were under a lot of pressure. Tratnik was taken to the Tour partly for this reason. We knew Jan had the same size and Jonas wanted to ride on it.

According to Niermann, Visma | Lease a Bike came away well, but so did the competition. 'Jonas was also under pressure from Pogacar and he did a super job, but he can also thank his team. I don't know if it was tougher than expected, but it was tough anyway. Chapeau, then. To Pogacar, but also to Wout (Van Aert, ed.), Christophe (Laporte, ed.) and Matteo (Jorgenson, ed.). If they hadn't been there, Pogacar would have reached the finish line a minute and a half ahead of the other riders. We were the only team who could still put it right, so really chapeau," said the proud German;

Then there was team manager Arthur van Dongen, who also shared a story of the day. 'We indeed decided not to ride with Pogacar. If we did, we would have driven ourselves further into loss,' the North Brabanter was also clear. 'Riding with him will certainly not make us stronger. Should Pogacar then attack again, we might have had to pass. So it wasn't up to us to push the yellow jersey any further.'

Striking texts, since at one point it was a two-on-one situation anyway: Jorgenson and Vingegaard versus Pogacar. 'That doesn't matter,' Van Dongen said. 'That would not have been tactically strong. Taking over only to be thrown overboard, that wasn't smart. That's why we decided that. I think it was the right choice, as Tadej kept putting pressure. That way they had to waste less energy.'

'That was indeed more important than gaining time on Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel,' Van Dongen said. 'That's why we rode defensively, especially since we lost Jan and Tiesj because of bad luck or thus that bike change.' Jonas was therefore under pressure on the gravel sections, especially those where the gravel was a bit loose. Then it is better to defend. Jonas is holding particularly strong this lap, yes. Especially on the flat sections he is holding up remarkably well. That's nice to know.'

According to Van Dongen, it was not Vingegaard's own choice not to tackle over, but one determined beforehand by the team. 'We don't need to help Tadej further in the saddle. On the contrary, in fact. It makes no sense to ride with him on this terrain, especially when you already see how hard we had it at all to bring Jonas back to Tadej. With the next attack he would be overboard and we shouldn't want that.'

IDLProcycling spoke with Van Dongen before the gravel stage, who already indicated that Vingegaard is enjoying the lap. 'In the gravel stage, the big main goal is to get Jonas in safely. That is at the top of the list. It will probably be very hectic,' he considered then. 'That's the main thing. Basically it's all balls on Jonas.Of course it also depends on what's going to happen and what's going to come our way.'

'Nervous we are not per se, although a stage like this obviously brings some extra tension with it for everyone,' Van Dongen also confided to us. Of course, stressing too much doesn't help either. But it is not just a sprint race. There are a lot of other things involved and that brings a lot of nervousness with it.' So with today's knowledge, we can definitely say that the sympathetic team leader predicted it all correctly.

Van Dongen also added that in principle he is not a fan of gravel stages in major rounds. The luck factor is of course quite big because of all the gravel. As teams, we have no further influence on this, as has often been said about the cobbled stages in the Tour. Does it belong there or not? For us, on the other hand, it is very simple. It is the organization that defines the route. So we know the route in advance and you can set yourself up for it. However, it would be very unpleasant if one or more favorites were to be knocked backwards due to bad luck. That's what I want to say. Sure, you can always have bad luck, but here they look for the possible bad luck. And so it turned out afterwards: Vingegaard often (!) punctured, as did many others....

Return to the finish of stage numero nine. Team manager Merijn Zeeman then also made himself heard by the bus. 'The whole team rode great, but I also have to give Niermann compliments. He is very clever and because of his idea Tratnik rode the whole day behind Vingegaard, so we could switch - if necessary. In addition, the team was very strong, so I have to give compliments to the staff as well," he spoke mainly words of equal pace.

Zeeman also spoke briefly about not riding with the Visma boys. 'We are so happy with Matteo, but Pogacar was incredibly strong. We needed the whole team to let him cool down a bit. We didn't want to fall into his trap. We're not going to take over in a two-on-one situation either. Then Tadej will attack again and we will be seen. We might lose time. We didn't want that. And we couldn't. We didn't have that luxury," it became more than clear that the killer bees viewed the plan in exactly the same way;

What about Vingegaard himself? The two-time Tour winner and defending champion also responded afterwards. 'I am mostly very relieved. The most important thing is that I got to the finish safely. I didn't lose any time, so that's nice. Only the two flat tires were a bit unfortunate. So I had to continue on Jan's bike. Also in the last three kilometers I had another flat. That was a kind of puncture. So luckily I was able to finish on the same bike. I have to thank all my teammates," he said gratefully.

'I definitely owe them that. They did a super good job,' the Dane praised his teammates. 'I also really fit perfectly on Jan's bike. He's the same size as me, so that's nice. The rest of the team kept me well in front every time. I went into every gravel strip from a good position. One time when I couldn't keep up, the guys closed the gap. I'm grateful for that too.