"It's a good thing he doesn't get it" - Visma have begun mental war against Tadej Pogacar

In the mountains it will always be difficult for anyone to beat Tadej Pogacar. At this Tour de France Team Visma | Lease a Bike have attacked the crosswinds, the hills and on stage 6 have raced quite aggressively at certain points to the dismay of the yellow jersey.

"It's a good thing he doesn't get it. We have our own tactics and did exactly what we wanted. Period," team DS Grischa Niermann told Sporza this morning. After stage 6 Pogacar was vocal about not understanding the Dutch team's tactics with the early breakaway attacks and then Matteo Jorgenson's sprint to the finish in Vire Normandie.

The team was aggressive early on and forced UAE into countering multiple attacks. They could not prevent Simon Yates from getting in the breakaway, but ultimately that didn't reap it's benefits. But Visma then paced hard in the final kilometers, almost bringing Pogacar back into provisional yellow.

It could be argued that this was potentially a tactic to try and keep the Slovenian in the race lead, hence having to carry yellow jersey duties after the stages and losing valuable recovery time. But Niermann plays that scenario off.

"Did we want him in yellow? Absolutely not. I hear that, but I think UAE rode until 6 kilometers before the finish and they set the lead. Then they also decided that Pogacar almost stayed in the yellow jersey."

There were even criticism of Visma's tactics, something the German shrugs off fully. "It started on day 1. What do I think of the criticism? I think it's a compliment that he's interfering with us. We look at ourselves, determine our own tactics, and don't interfere".

Tiesj Benoot also shared his opinions after having aided in the late pace-setting. "That he's confused? I'm often confused too when we go into the mountains. No, we never talked about keeping Tadej in the yellow jersey. The fact that he almost stayed in the yellow jersey is because they didn't give Van der Poel enough of a lead."

"I thought Mathieu would take the yellow jersey by a minute or two. We just wanted to ride the last two climbs as quickly as possible. That made it easier for Jonas not to lose any time on such an explosive finish. There was nothing more to it. Yellow wasn't even considered."