Jose de Cauwer believes "the plan did not succeed" for Jumbo-Visma on stage 14

Jumbo-Visma laid it all on the line on stage 14, making the race brutally hard and setting an infernal pace at the front of the peloton all day. When all was said and done, Jonas Vingegaard extended his lead by a single second, something that Jose de Cauwer believes will be a disappointment.

"They gained 1 second, but the plan did not succeed. The team management said afterwards that they wanted to drop Pogacar," the Belgian commentator for Sporza explains. "If he had free rein on the Joux Plane, he might be able to go downhill with 100 meters. You don't know whether Jonas Vingegaard will return, but on the climb, the Dane was not the better of the two."

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Had it not been for a race motorbike being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Tadej Pogacar could have actually taken a chunk out of the narrow time gap between the pair. "Suppose the Tour is decided by 1 second, then you are talking about this. But it won't come to that," says de Cauwer. "It's just a shame it happened. They almost stopped and you knew there was going to be an explosion. Okay, when that engine pulls away, the public comes in again. But you also have a helicopter for the images."

"I cannot accept any excuse. The engines have to get out of there and have to think ahead. These are experienced men who know that the pace is going up. It went from 25 km/h to 10 km/h," he continues. "Something had to happen 500 meters from the top. Okay, you don't know exactly when, but you have to think with the riders. There was no fixed point for that attack, but Tadej Pogacar had to brake for 2 engines."

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