Johan Bruyneel: "Tadej Pogacar's most dangerous rival is called Tadej Pogacar"

Johan Bruyneel, on Lance Armstrong's The Move show, gave his thoughts on stage 11 of the Tour de France and was harsh on Tadej Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates for trying a tactic he believes was stupid against an obviously in-form Jonas Vingegaard.

The former cyclist and current analyst began by explaining what happened on a very hard but not high-mountain day: "It was a very long stage by today's Tour standards and more than 4000 meters of elevation gain, like the big mountain stages, but it wasn't a mountain stage, because there were hills, there were no mountains. It was a very hard stage from the start, it took the breakaway 80 km to get going and the average was 50 km/h, crazy. It was a high quality breakaway with Ben Healy, Richard Carapaz, Oier Lazkano, very strong... so you think it(the victory, ed.) goes to the breakaway of the day, it's logical. The yellow jersey team controlling without anyone for the overall, but nothing like that happened. UAE in my opinion set too high a pace and took out the breakaway quickly."

Bruyneel can't explain how UAE, having the yellow jersey, decided to attack Vingegaard with 30 kilometers to go as if the rest of the rivals didn't exist, taking a huge risk in exchange for a reward that, at best, would not have been huge: "I honestly don't understand why they raced like that. You have the yellow and you should know that Jonas is in good shape, he passed the mountain stage, the time trial and the gravel day, he's in good shape. What I can't understand is that it was clear that the moment to attack for Pogacar was in that last kilometer of the hardest pass 30 km from the finish, that he could take as he did an advantage, but you always have to look at the effort-reward: how much in terms of energy it costs to gain time and if it's really worth the effort."

"If after the descent there had been the finish line it would have been worth it, but there were 30 km to go. And, ok, Pogacar, you're in good shape, maybe in the best shape in the world, but the others are too and they weren't going to look at you and let you go, and that's what happened. First, they burned the whole team before Pogacar attacked. Then, when he went off in this last kilometer, it became clear that Vingegaard could at his pace slowly cut him back. Then he made a great effort on the descent, pedaling and putting himself at risk by expending a lot of energy."

Thus, Johan Bruyneel is very clear that if Tade.j continues to race like this throughout the Tour de France 2024, he will end up paying dearly for it. "Tadej Pogacar's most dangerous rival is called Tadej Pogacar and we have seen that at the stage. UAE made a stupid tactic, I don't understand it, he has a 1:15 lead, Vingegaard is behind, he is the one who has to attack him."

"My conclusion is that although Pogacar has said that Visma is afraid of him it is he who is afraid of Visma, Pogacar is afraid of Jonas. They made a big mistake, I think it made sense to attack Vingegaard like that in the early stages, but not now that he is fit. They made a big mistake, first trying to go for the stage, putting the whole team in the lead, it's a bit disrespectful to the rest of the peloton, UAE races as if the rest of the rivals don't exist, but today it blew up in their face. Tadaj had was loaded with energy, but he ran out of anything in the tank," he concluded.