Lance Armstrong slams Visma for "forcing" Jonas Vingegaard: "No one should be put in the position of going on to win the Tour de France after a crash"

After yesterday's stage finish, Lance Armstrong is very clear that the Tour de France has been decided in favor of Tadej Pogacar and that Jonas Vingegaard will have to fight against Remco Evenepoel to hold on to second place in the general classification.

The American analyzed the Visma | Lease a Bike Dane's backward glances at every time Pogi attacked: before he immediately went towards him, now he tries to control Remco coming from behind.

"Jonas looking back, is this the real race we're going to see? Jonas looking back at Remco. There are 4 days left and a very hard time trial at the end that suits Remco very well, he's 2 minutes behind and he's reeling it in."

Johan Bruyneel talked with Armstrong on his podcast The Move about periods of "supercompensation." That is, that when a cyclist is preparing for a goal he should introduce rest periods into his training so that his form continues to rise. Jonas has not been able to do that because he has not had the material time due to his fall in the Itzulia.

Logically, racing the Tour de France he can't afford those necessary rest periods referred to, so sooner or later his form was going to drop, our CiclismoAlDía colleague Juan Larra notices, as it seems to be happening in this third week where he has shown weakness even against Remco Evenpoel. Thus, Armstrong thinks that Visma should not have put Vingegaard in the position of trying to win the Tour de France.

"No one should put themselves in the position of trying to win the Tour de France after a crash, it's almost impossible to do. You need those recovery periods you call supercompensation. You recover and then you're a percentage stronger. He hasn't been able to carry out this supercompensation period because he's in the Tour de France."