"Last year we tried to make the race extremely hard and still Pogacar won" - Visma's Campenaerts on exploring Tour de France winner's weak spots
Cycling
Beating Tadej Pogacar in his terrain and when he is in peak form is proving to be mission impossible for virtually every rider in the peloton. Team Visma | Lease a Bike are well aware of that, and at last year's Tour de France they have deployed complex tactics to try and burn the Slovenian out. Whilst it didn't work, Victor Campenaerts provides some interesting insight into these tactics.
Whilst on a basic level the team depth can be used to position someone like Jonas Vingegaard well in all key moments, and to place specific riders in the breakaways in order to potentially help in key moments; it goes far beyond that.
Visma's performance team not only worked on their riders, but calculated Pogacar's numbers throughout the race, and explored new avenues through which they might crack him. “Look, last year we tried to make the race extremely hard and still Pogacar won," Campenaerts said in words to Het Nieuwsblad.
However that wasn't without trying. In the mountains the Slovenian simply had the upper hand, having the best W/Kg on most climbs that decided the race, having the endurance to perform over the brutal stages, the recovery to perform in each and every one of them, and having the team to support him in moments of pressure - physical and psychological.
Campenaerts explains how deep Visma went to try and find these difficulties in the Slovenian: "The team’s data analysts have analyzed everything. How much time did Jonas ride above his FTP in the Tour? Where do we estimate Pogačar’s FTP, and how much time did he ride above his FTP? So how many sugars (carbs, most likely, ed.) did they both burn? Could it be that we put Jonas into a bigger deficit than Pogacar?”
The math was made, the incredibly aggressive tactics throughout many hilly and even flat stages were deployed to try and lead to a hard moment that Vingegaard could take advantage of, but Pogacar simply did not crack a single time during the Tour and consistently put on strong performances. Visma had to settle for a second place.
Campenaerts himself put on the ride of a lifetime, performing in all terrains, showing his best ever climbing numbers, and proving to be a key part of Vingegaard's block both with valuable experience but also as a valuable contributor to the team's overall mood on the bus with his daily vlogs.
“Everyone keeps getting better. If you’d shown me the numbers I rode last year early in my career, I wouldn’t have said I could win a Grand Tour, but I would have been riding for the prizes in Paris-Nice," he believes. "The hard part is that the top riders like Pogacar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel and Van der Poel, keep improving year after year.”
Campenaerts was second on stage 15 of this past year's Tour de France. @Sirotti
Visma's lineup selections
Next year Campenaerts races the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France, following Jonas Vingegaard as a key right-hand man as has been the case in 2025. He is already aware of how the teams at the top level function, and has taken on his new domestique role better than anyone could've expected.
“In the Grand Tours it’s about watts per kilo but it’s also about who can perform when the team management comes to your room the day before and says: tomorrow you’re going to be at the front of the peloton at this point in the race, with the rest of the team in the wheel, and you ride until there are no riders left from other teams.”
He also provides insight into the riders that get selected to the Grand Tours, and are even signed. Often, results and overall racing performance matter more to Visma than the pure raw numbers that the riders can put on display:
“There are riders who smash everything in training, but then it doesn’t work in a race. Our performance team is very good at spotting that: who buckles under pressure, who brings something extra to the table, who might create a negative atmosphere on the bus," he explains.
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
claps 9visitors 8
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- i am sure that under the pretext of medical examination a lot worse has happened when they were under.abstractengineer02-11-2026
- dude, Lemond never even was in the same race as Armstrong. He throws all these aspersions on other American riders who might usurp his throne as the greatest ever American racer. He doesn't say a single thing about (foreign) dopers who he actually raced against. Biggest douchebag move ever. I used to revere that guy, now I despise him. His actions are so weird.fatsupermodel02-11-2026
- This is just stupid, You do what you are good at not what you are weak at. He has no results to speak of when he participated. Even Froome, Conatdor had very little. With Pogi there he wont win none of the classics. he is already 30+ with a few years left at the top. It takes years to get good at classics. Is that really worth the effort???abstractengineer02-11-2026
- Sure, little fella.awp02-11-2026
- You'll be the ongoing joke of 2027 with anything you post here!frieders302-11-2026
- Awwww your inside information must be from PogiFanGirl. You two daughters of different mothers?frieders302-11-2026
- Hey PogIFanGirl...wipe that cream from your lips! You're ever loving drooling and whatever you have for Tadej has your brain fried!frieders302-11-2026
- Why should he 'let it go' ! Because you said so? Anytime LA Doper is called out is a win win !frieders302-11-2026
- Geez LeMond...let it go. You're a has been, albeit a former great one. But this is all water under the bridge and just undermines your legacy further.Mshark01-11-2026
- 'The Slovenian has collected four Tour de France titles' ... '[Kieran Wood's] ... reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis'. i would say that is pretty inaccurate accurate coverage, kieran wood ... too bad that AI's knowledge often lags several months behind ... but proof reading is certainly part of accurate coverage, isn't it? but fortunately does Kieran Wood place 'strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.' i would say the fifth tdf title is pretty new (and even verified) information, so feel free to update this article.Ketterechts01-11-2026
Loading
1 Comments