Jonas Vingegaard: "We can no longer attack like on the Col du Granon"

This Tour de France saw, on a few stages, Jumbo-Visma overpowering Tadej Pogacar. The 11th stage of the race saw Jonas Vingegaard go clear of the Slovenian and ride to conquer the Grand Boucle, however the team is not so confident that they can pull off such a move once again.

“We can no longer attack like on the Col du Granon. I’ll be the only leader in the climbs, of course that makes a difference," Vingegaard told Sporza. "Wout van Aert will also be given freedom and we will continue to race aggressively as we always do, but we can no longer attack like on the Col du Granon."

With Primoz Roglic focusing on the Giro d'Italia, and having the likes of Wilco Kelderman, Tobias Foss and Jan Tratnik join him in the quest for pink, it is safe to say the Dutch team won't be deploying their very best to the Tour as was the case this year. This will give less room to maneuver in the mountains.

Whilst the likes of Rafal Majka and Brandon McNulty had very strong performances over the mountains this year, Pogacar was in some cases isolated against more than one Jumbo-Visma rider. That can change next year. Although João Almeida, Jay Vine and Juan Ayuso are all set to skip the Tour, the duo and new signing Adam Yates are all expected to be riding within support of the Slovenian.

“We figured out how to defeat Pogacar last year. We know his strengths and the areas in which Jonas is superior to him,” team manager Merijn Zeeman told In de Leiderstrui. “We return to the Tour with a solid plan, and we believe that we can aim for yellow again with Jonas.”