"Great riders but didn’t race it the right way" - Armstrong highlights UAE’s Pogacar mistake as Vingegaard rides into Tour de France yellow jersey
CyclingSunday, 05 July 2026 at 09:51
Stage 1 of the 2026 Tour de France left no one indifferent. The innovative 19-kilometre team time trial in Barcelona delivered an uncommon opening-day spectacle and sparked a lively debate on The Move, Lance Armstrong’s podcast.
Joined by George Hincapie and Bradley Wiggins, the Texan dissected a stage defined by Visma-Lease a Bike’s victory, Jonas Vingegaard’s first strike against Tadej Pogacar, and the brilliant image Barcelona projected to the world.
Armstrong admitted the outcome wasn’t exactly what he expected, but insisted the stage exceeded expectations as a spectacle. “As a viewer, I loved it,” he said. For the American, the technical course exposed clear strategic contrasts between teams, especially Visma’s flawless execution compared to other squads that, in his view, “had great riders but didn’t race it the right way.”
George Hincapie was even more emphatic in his assessment of the Tour’s opener. “You can’t have a more exciting start to the Tour than this,” he said, noting it had been years since Stage 1 generated such sporting tension. The former American pro highlighted the huge pressure of opening a Grand Tour with such an explosive team time trial.
“For the riders it’s a real exam from minute one. You go from doing gentle team intervals to riding absolutely on the limit with your heart rate pegged. For the fans it was a very exciting show,” he summed up.
UAE and Pogacar’s performance
Bradley Wiggins shared that enthusiasm. The 2012 Tour champion said the stage “delivered on every level” and called it “a great show” that produced several surprises and a “deserved yellow jersey.”
One aspect that most caught the trio’s eye was Visma-Lease a Bike’s tactical superiority. While other squads shed riders along the route, the Dutch team kept several men with Jonas Vingegaard into the final kilometres, a decisive factor in sealing the win.
Armstrong stressed the team executed “the perfect race.” He argued the difference wasn’t just raw power, but organisation, positioning, and relay distribution. Hincapie added that keeping three top domestiques with Vingegaard in the decisive phase brought a huge physical and psychological edge.
The American even picked Matteo Jorgenson’s final pull as the move of the day. He underlined the difficulty of delivering a maximal effort in a team time trial, threading the corners cleanly, and dropping your leader in the best spot for the final climb.
UAE Team Emirates’ display drew a much more nuanced analysis. On paper, Tadej Pogacar’s squad looked among the favourites to dominate the stage, but ended up with only two riders alongside the Slovenian in the closing kilometres.
Even so, none of the three viewed the result as negative. Armstrong noted that, setting aside Visma’s exceptional ride, Pogacar lost very little time and kept his overall chances fully intact for the rest of the Tour.
Tadej Pogacar, at the 2026 Tour de France.
Stage 2 "perfectly" set up for Pogacar
It was Bradley Wiggins who offered a particularly interesting read on the reigning world champion’s situation. “This sets the stage perfectly for Pogacar,” he said.
The Briton believes avoiding the yellow jersey on day one can even be a strategic plus. “Wearing yellow from the first day brings huge stress and pressure,” he noted. By contrast, Pogacar surrendered only a handful of seconds and remains fully in the fight for the general classification.
At the same time, Wiggins also underlined the powerful morale boost for Vingegaard in pulling on yellow again. “That can lift his confidence even more,” he said.
The discussion also focused on Remco Evenepoel’s performance. Hincapie was particularly impressed by how the Belgian marshalled Soudal-Quick Step’s time trial. He explained that Evenepoel hit the front from the opening metres, then slotted into fourth wheel to optimise aerodynamics, and kept contributing throughout the stage.
“He won an important mental battle,” Hincapie said, referring to the direct comparison with Florian Lipowitz within the team.
Evenepoel’s power
Armstrong and Wiggins also agreed the Olympic champion probably could have set an even faster mark had it been an individual effort. Another key figure in the conversation was Filippo Ganna. All three agreed the Italian once again proved he remains one of the best time trial specialists in the world.
In fact, Armstrong floated a question that sparked a curious debate: would Ganna have been even faster riding the entire stage completely alone? Both Hincapie and Wiggins said yes, convinced that a rider with his profile could even have bettered his team’s time over much of the course.
Beyond the sporting outcome, there was one major co-star shared by all three commentators: Barcelona. Armstrong was particularly effusive about the Catalan city. “Barcelona was as much a winner as Vingegaard,” he said.
Remco Evenepoel, at the Tour de France 2026
Stunning image of Barcelona
The American praised the spectacular TV production and said any viewer who had never visited the city would have finished the day wanting to go. The aerial shots of the coastline, the Sagrada Familia, Montjuïc, and the urban course left a deep impression on the former Tour winner, who felt Barcelona delivered unbeatable tourism exposure.
Hincapie backed that view, saying the helicopter shots were “phenomenal,” while Wiggins also praised the setting chosen to open the race.
Together, the three members of The Move agreed that the innovative team time trial was a smart call by the Tour de France organizers. The format created gaps between the GC favorites, injected tactical tension from the first kilometer, and produced a far more open race than usual.
Visma-Lease a Bike emerged stronger thanks to flawless execution; Vingegaard reclaimed the yellow jersey and a valuable morale boost; Pogacar limited the damage and, according to Wiggins, may even have benefited by not taking the lead too soon. Meanwhile, Barcelona earned unanimous praise from three of the most influential voices in world cycling, becoming, in Armstrong’s words, one of the day’s big winners.
Gavin QuinnCycling Journalist
Gavin Quinn is a cycling journalist and ultra-distance cyclist with a BA in Journalism from Dublin City University. Formerly the Press & Communications Officer for Cycling Ireland, Gavin has worked inside the national team at the World Championships and has reported for the Irish Mirror, Mirror UK, and The42.
His expertise is backed by elite-level access, having interviewed stars like Sam Bennett and Ben Healy, as well as immense personal endurance. In 2025, he completed a 12,000km solo cycle from Ireland to Vietnam, following a 4,600km tour across Europe. From the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix to the gradients of the Tourmalet, Gavin’s writing focuses on the "romance and brutality" of the sport. Having visited 50+ countries, he brings a global, cultural perspective to his coverage of the pro peloton for CyclingUpToDate.
claps 1visitors 1
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Correct First major test will be the Pyrenees, not because the route here is scaring, on the contrary it is relative mild. However the pivotal denominator could be the excessive heat, on Tuesday the temperature on much of the route is forecasted to be around 42 degrees C. The TDF riders react very different to heat. Despite specific heat training and numerous cooling devices it is still the genes that eventually determines the individual physiological threshold for heat. From previously we already have data that signifies to what extend individual riders performance are related to excessive heat, including heat for several days in a row. Very exciting days ahead - watch the weather forecast.Jakob05-07-2026
- Given that he's not even riding for GC this Tour, I'd say he's not "overrated" - he's probably going to be used as a luxury domestique/road captain if he changes teams. I don't get the feeling that the cycling media has ever hyped him as being anything more than he is: a solid diesel climber/stage-getter who tend to get underrated by other teams until he nicks off in a breakaway and lands himself in the top 5 or higher. The fact that those doco series' followed him and made him look he was some sort of tantrum diva isn't really his fault. The guy is incredibly hard on himself, and his dry sense of humour/self-depreciating personality type doesn't seem to translate well - Jonas has the same problems with some of his statements - so I guess people can think what they want, but seems to me that there's a lot of severely over-hyped/delusional riders out there and he's not on that list.antipodeanpedalfan05-07-2026
- Visma has poked the bear.Cooldude05-07-2026
- Pogi got the best climbing time, his usual levelabstractengineer05-07-2026
- Pogi set the fastest time on the climb. Its already over unless he cracksabstractengineer05-07-2026
- 8 Lipowitz Florian Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe 0:35 9 Seixas Paul Netcompany INEOS 0:38 10 Foss Tobias Decathlon CMA CGM Team 0:39 he already transferredabstractengineer05-07-2026
- Racing against the clock is always boring for spectators. However, this format of TTTs is preferable over the others, in that the results are a good indication of where each rider would eventually finish in the standings at the end of the race, although that is not evident in this case, as we are getting ahead, this being just the first stage of a 21-day race. I guess that's because it shows both individual, as well as team capabilities lumped together, with a slight emphasis on individual abilities.FredMan05-07-2026
- He’s terriblemij05-07-2026
- 87 kg is a lot to carry around over rough cobbles and it's no surprise he's punctured so many times. As for Vauquelin, what comes around goes around (Onley at the Dauphiné)
Rafionain-Glas05-07-2026 - When I read Pogi is "immediately on back foot", I had a smirky smile on my face. Like "race is over, Vini has already won". Ha ha!Ride197405-07-2026
Loading
Write a comment