The Col de Joux Plane saw the climax of another brutal and harshly attacked day at the Tour de France. Jumbo-Visma engineered a strategy to wear down the competition and Tadej Pogacar, eventually it did to a level where the top two riders were perfectly matched on the final ascent.
"This was worth a film. You could make a Movistar movie out of this," Jumbo-Visma DS Frans Maassen joked in the microphone of Sporza. "It was certainly a wonderful day for cycling. I think we rode a fantastic race. We tried to wear everyone down, including Pogacar. In the end it was hand-to-hand combat. We have seen a beautiful race."
The short day saw plenty climbing from start to finish and at no point did Jumbo-Visma let go the pace. It was a brutal day on the bike for everyone through the Alps, after the penultimate climb of the day only around 15 riders survived in the leading group and the attacks were yet to come. Jumbo-Visma tried to take advantage of the multi-climb terrain to race in a way that suits Jonas Vingegaard. The Dane did only win one second, but turned the tide on Pogacar who had won meaningful time over the last three mountain stages.
"Everything went according to plan, but of course we had hoped that Pogacar would drop," Maassen is honest. "We weren't panicked. It was man to man, the situation was constantly changing. From that moment on it was a struggle for Jonas to get back in the wheel. He kept his own pace and meter by meter he came back. That was also a mental blow back to Pogacar. They have been boxing well together." Stage 15 will certainly see another explosive battle as the riders head up to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc.
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