"It won’t be easy at all for UAE" - Bruyneel on the plan Visma must execute to put Tadej Pogacar under pressure

Stage 6 of the Tour de France 2026 left an impression that goes far beyond Tadej Pogacar’s victory. The Slovenian not only won the Pyrenees queen stage, he also landed a psychological and sporting blow on Jonas Vingegaard that forces Visma–Lease a Bike to rethink its entire strategy for the next two weeks.

That was precisely the main talking point on The Move, Lance Armstrong’s podcast with Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin. Both agreed that Pogacar’s superiority compels the Dutch team to abandon the usual script if they want to keep their chances of fighting for yellow alive.

Bruyneel was very clear when assessing the world champion’s performance. “We all know Tadej is incredibly fast. He’s going to go very fast,” he said, before explaining that the truly extraordinary part was the level reached by the peloton’s elite. “Pogacar breaks the record. Jonas breaks it too. Del Toro as well. Remco, Seixas, Lipowitz, Ayuso...”

“All these riders have smashed the record.” For the Belgian former sports director, the conclusion is obvious: “This shows that every year you have to be significantly faster than the previous one to stay competitive.” However, the real debate is not about Pogacar, but about what Visma can do now.

In recent editions of the Tour, the Dutch team built its victories by gradually wearing down Pogacar until they found a moment of weakness in the mountains. After what we saw on stage six, Bruyneel suggests that approach no longer seems sufficient.

The race, moreover, now moves into a completely different terrain. “The race now enters a very peculiar phase. There won’t be mountain stages until stage 14 and we face many days of sprints, transition, and breakaways,” he explained.

That is precisely where Visma’s opportunity may appear. With Pogacar in yellow and UAE Team Emirates forced to control each day, Bruyneel reminded that domination also comes at a very high cost.

“That’s the price you pay when you dominate the race like this. All the responsibility falls on you and they still have to face some stages in the Massif Central that are very, very tough. Sometimes those days are even more demanding than a true mountain stage.”

The message is clear. If Vingegaard no longer seems able to beat Pogacar solely on the big climbs, Visma will have to try to wear down the Emirati squad throughout the entire week before the Alps.

Spencer Martin shares that view. For the American analyst, the Tour now enters an apparently calm phase, but one that is much harder for the leader to control.

“It’s not going to be easy at all for UAE,” he summed up.

Without major passes to naturally select the race, the chances of dangerous breakaways, long-range attacks, and unpredictable stages increase. Bruyneel even recalled that when there are giants like the Aspin or the Tourmalet the race tends to order itself, but when those summit finishes disappear, controlling the peloton becomes far more complex.

That is why the takeaway from The Move is that Visma needs to change its way of racing completely. Rather than waiting for the final climb to attack with Vingegaard, the Dutch team must harden stages from afar, place riders in the breaks, force UAE to chase for hours, and try to accumulate constant wear on the leader.

Paradoxically, Pogacar’s dominance does not necessarily mean the Tour is decided. On the contrary. The absence of high mountains for more than a week forces UAE to assume full responsibility for controlling the race.

Bruyneel stressed that this obligation can end up taking a toll as the race progresses. The more a team dominates, the greater the workload it must take on to defend the lead.

After the blow Vingegaard suffered in the Pyrenees, Visma seems to have lost the direct duel with Pogacar in the mountains. The big unknown is no longer who is the strongest, but whether the Dutch team will be able to turn the next stages into a race of constant attrition. Because, judging by Bruyneel and Martin’s analysis, if there is a way to put Pogacar under pressure, it is not only by attacking on the climbs, but by forcing UAE to work every day until the big mountains return.