Whilst Vingegaard was clearly a level below his great rival in the high mountains, Friebe also calls into question the tactics of
Team Visma | Lease a Bike during the race. “What we saw here is the limit of having multiple leaders. It didn’t work," he explains. "They could have used
Ben Tulett and
Matteo Jorgenson to pressure Pogacar’s helpers, but they held back to stay high in the GC themselves.”
As such, there is a struggle to see how anything other than a lack of concentration from Pogacar himself will stop a 4th Maillot Jaune going the way of the Slovenian superstar later this summer. "“Crashes can obviously end someone’s race, but they also change how a rider feels – we saw that with
Remco Evenepoel here, who has suffered," concludes the ITV Sport expert. "Pogacar mentioned earlier this week that he receives so much respect in the peloton that everyone gives him a wide berth. That makes it less likely he’ll crash. So yes, while it’s still a risk, it’s probably less of one for him than for others.”