"It all becomes a bit more chaotic" - Jonas Vingegaard explains attempt to pressure Tadej Pogacar in stage 9 Tour de France crosswinds

As has been the case for much of the opening week at the 2025 Tour de France, Team Visma | Lease a Bike were attacking and aggressive at the front of the peloton on stage 9, looking for any opportunity to put the pressure on Tadej Pogacar. Although they put the hammer down in the crosswinds and did cause some serious splits behind, Pogacar was a match once again.

“We tried at one point — there’s a section where the road turns almost 180 degrees to the left, and we thought the wind would hit us more from the side,” explained Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader and Pogacar's long-time Maillot Jaune rival Jonas Vingegaard in a post-stage interview with TV 2 Sport. “But it turned out to be more of a tailwind than we expected. We’d hoped for a side-tailwind, which is ideal for breaking up the bunch. Unfortunately, it was more of a straight tailwind, so nothing happened.”

Whilst the move was ultimately unsuccessful, Vingegaard makes no attempt to hide the fact his team are looking to create chaos. “Obviously, the pace in the peloton goes up, and when you have a battle for position at the same time, it all becomes a bit more chaotic,” adds the two-time Tour de France winner. “The speed has to be so high that you can’t just block the front of the bunch like you normally might. So during the hectic parts of the race, it all gets a bit messier.”

When it is more messy and more chaotic, there is of course more chance for the big GC contenders to be caught out. As such, whilst it didn't work this time, don't be surprised to see Team Visma | Lease a Bike try something similar again if the opportunity arises later on in the race.

“It was a genuine attempt, but we more or less knew the wind wouldn’t be strong enough. Remco Evenepoel and Tadej were already up front,” Visma DS Grischa Niermann said to TV 2 Sport. “We gave it a try, but it was clear the wind wasn’t strong enough, so we pulled back and let the sprint teams take over.”