"In terms of purely winning the Tour de France I wouldn't be letting any of my team-mates go in the break" - Luke Rowe on Jumbo-Visma's Tour de France tactics

Jumbo-Visma and UAE Team Emirates are fighting for the Tour de France win, and both have spent long days in the head of the peloton and trying to create damage. Luke Rowe comments on the tactics of the Dutch team, not understanding the aggressive behaviour over the Massif Central stages.

"Yeah, very surprised actually. We had a bit of a different take on that back in the day when we were controlling the jersey. It was all for one cause and that was purely and solely bringing that yellow jersey home. Whereas they've gone a bit more flamboyant which is good to watch on TV, good from a spectator viewpoint, but in terms of purely winning the Tour de France I wouldn't be letting any of my team-mates go in the break," the INEOS Grenadiers rider told in the 'The Breakaway' show. "You would say 'right, we all stay with the yellow jersey every step of the way'. You can see how active the starts are and how unafraid Pogacar is to move, so I would have the numbers there with him the whole time just to put any situation that could go wrong, right."

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With Tadej Pogacar proving himself stronger in the last two summit finishes, Jumbo-Visma and Jonas Vingegaard have not looked to race defensively over the second week so far, as the 17-second gap is almost meaningless in the bigger picture. Stage 12 saw both teams trying to deal blows into each other early on, with plenty attacks and the top two themselves on a few occasions bridging across to the front groups, in what is turning out to be a very tight battle, where the two don't give each other a single meter.

"I think today there were a few head-scratcher moments from a couple of teams. But certainly to race against that, I think you can simplify it. If you're a rival to Jumbo you just let them do what they want to do and every guy up the road, on a day like today, is irrelevant," Rowe argues. "You just think 'happy days'. Tiesj Benoot is a guy who is going to be needed the next three days and he's spent more pennies than someone like [UAE riders] Rafal Majka or Matteo Trentin. I think if you're a rival to Jumbo, you say 'alright boys, let them go, crack on, let them race to the death and fry themselves before the next few days'."

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🇫🇷 #TDF2023 Happy Bastille Day! 😃 Today’s stage will be a show. 👀

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