"A missed opportunity" - De Cauwer and Schotte critical of Visma and Vingegaard on final mountain stage at the Tour

Team Visma | Lease a Bike's tactics have been closely analyzed throughout the entire Tour de France and with that happening, naturally there will always be a lot of criticism and commentary on social media. The general consensus is of mixed reactions depending on the days, but after the final mountain stage of the race into La Plagne there was a generally negative view of their lack of attacks.

“Vingegaard has mainly ruined it for himself. The Alps didn't bring him anything, neither yesterday nor today. And he didn't make a single attempt today. And Visma is always right, but in this case, I say they are not right. I'm thoroughly convinced," Sporza commentator José de Cauwer said. The Dutch team did an all-in attack on stage 18 with Sepp Kuss and Matteo Jorgenson playing key roles, but neither had the legs this Friday to make the difference. With the stage shortened, Tadej Pogacar showing no weakness and UAE drilling a very high pace all day long, there was simply no gap that Jonas Vingegaard could seize to try and take back meaningful time in the overall classification.

So the goal was ultimately the stage win only, but Renaat Schotte believes thew Dane raced too conservatively and is the main reason why Vingegaard and Pogacar didn't end up fighting for the stage wins themselves. "I can see and feel it happening. Then Vingegaard is lucky, or unlucky, that Lipowitz did the dirty work for him".

It was possible, Lipowitz set it up. And then he fails to do it. I find that so disappointing," Schotte comments. "And it's not that he's a coward. I take that back. However, I believe this is a missed opportunity. As sports director in the car, I would have encouraged Vingegaard to go for it, especially with Lipowitz's story."