"The more they force Pogacar to respond, the greater the chance he might crack" - Thijs Zonneveld encourages Visma's attacking Tour de France tactics

The 2025 Tour de France has been utterly relentless in its pace and attacking nature over the course of the first 6 stages. Even stage 6, which seemed to be heading for a regulation breakaway day, sparked into life for the GC contenders as Team Visma | Lease a Bike attempted to put pressure on Tadej Pogacar.

"I’m astonished every single time. When you see the averages... it’s incredible that this is even possible," analyses Dutch ex-pro turned expert analyst Thijs Zonneveld on his In De Waaier podcast following stage 6. "Of course, this is the absolute highest level in professional cycling, but the speed and the way riders are able to keep launching attacks for so long — that’s really something we've only seen in recent years."

Although only momentarily, Zonneveld noted how Pogacar was indeed put under pressure for Visma as well. "For a moment, they didn’t have it under control, and Pogacar had to respond himself. That was the cue for Visma: we keep pressing," he recalls. "The more often they force Pogacar to respond, the greater the chance that something might crack somewhere."

"I think Visma really thought: as long as we keep the fuse lit near the powder keg, things will remain chaotic — and we might just profit from that," continues Zonneveld. "The plan was to use Matteo Jorgenson to put pressure on UAE and Pogacar, so Vingegaard could conserve more energy. So far, they haven’t succeeded — Pogacar knows exactly what’s going on, so he immediately responds when Jorgenson makes a move. That’s why Visma kept the gap so small for so long."

Whilst gaining time back for Jonas Vingegaard was always unlikely on stage 6, Visma did almost do enough to ensure Pogacar had another evening of media duties in the Maillot Jaune because of their late attacking. In the end though, even this fell short as Mathieu van der Poel gained yellow by just a sole second.

"Victor Campenaerts was driving the pace brutally hard with seven kilometres to go. It wasn’t a classic lead-out for the final climb — it was more like: you want to lose the yellow jersey, but we’ve got other ideas. And they could see Van der Poel starting to drop off the front," Zonneveld noted. "And they nearly pulled it off. Pogacar almost accidentally sprinted back into yellow at the end. That would’ve been a real anticlimax for Van der Poel — he put himself through hell all day, only to fall short of yellow at the very end… that would’ve stung."