Visma DS doesn't panic over loss of 50 seconds: "We had expected this to happen, and we have to make do with it"
CyclingWednesday, 03 July 2024 at 04:00
Jonas Vingegaard was the only rider to come at least close to following Tadej Pogacar's acceleration on Col du Galibier, however even the mighty Dane came short to his Slovenian counterpart after a short while. The gap between the two even further deepened in the long descent to Valloire, with Vingegaard eventually arriving 37 seconds behind Pogacar, who also grabbed another 13 bonification seconds along the way.
What did Visma | Lease a Bike manager Grischa Niermann learn from the first mountain stage in this Tour? "The conclusion is that Pogacar had a splitting attack in the last few hundred meters of the Galibier," the German ex-pro told WielerFlits. "Jonas just couldn’t keep up. He eventually lost some time on the descent. We had expected this to happen, and we have to make do with it."
Vingegaard lost nearly a minute to Pogacar at the finish in Valloire. A setback? "I don’t know. If you had told us last Friday that we would be fifty seconds behind Pogacar after four days... We have to be very happy with that," Niermann counters.
The German tactician assures the race is still far from over and that we're yet to see much more from Vingegaard in remainining 17 stages. "It's a bit of a setback for now, but we also knew this was possible. We've been saying this from the start of the Tour. We're sure Jonas will come in even better, but today Pogacar was just better."
Niermann also looked at the strength of UAE Emirates, Pogacar's team, who had Juan Ayuso and Joao Almeida also in the mix with the favourites. "I didn't expect anything else. They have a super strong team, but we already knew that. You could say: Adam Yates had to let go and that is unexpected. I had previously expected a situation in which four UAE riders would be in the top ten."
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- Yep, and considering neither is really built for climbing, it speaks volumes. Only name I can see who has a climbers build is KN. An observation maybe someone will find interesting or have more info on, compared to men, the strong lady climbers are heavier, often the equivalent of their male versions for same height. Is it because the girls try to build muscle to climb better or the boys try to lose weight for that or both, seems paradoxical.Mistermaumau09-05-2025
- His injury problems were known to his past team who still tried to re-sign him, who’s fault, especially if the medical team fails to resolve problems? Not sure it’s offered or possible but teams are free to consider insurance or contract clauses in order to mitigate financial risks.Mistermaumau09-05-2025
- Lafay is the classic example of you get a great TDF stage win, get a lucrative contract and then you dont perform ever again, due to partying or injuries.abstractengineer09-05-2025
- I think it’s pretty weird under the circumstances and won’t be surprised if one day we discover some unmentioned detail that triggered this. In the meantime, hope he finds himself elsewhere.Mistermaumau08-05-2025
- Reusser is amazing too. More than just a TT specialist.mobk08-05-2025
- Tough to beat her on the long climbs if she has a team that will bring her fresh to the bottom of the climbsmobk08-05-2025
- Er, building up a 20 second gap in less than a km against the best is not exactly nothing, must have been at least 10% faster. Peletons also reel in breakaways but if they don’t manage BEFORE the end the reeling in doesn’t really mean much does it. She did exactly the right think, destroyed the others’ chances of catching her with a massive attack.Mistermaumau08-05-2025
- Demi must be so happy to now be on a team that works for her, and not against her. I think that if she and the team get their tactics dialed in, she could prove to be unstoppable this year.
santiagobenites08-05-2025 - I wouldn't call 24 seconds destroyed. At the end she was suffering and Reusser was slowly reeling her backabstractengineer08-05-2025
- I dont expect much from them top 5 maybeabstractengineer08-05-2025
I like how Visma's camp want to play a mind games as always at the TDF. The reality is they don't expect to lose 50'' at stage four, but they act like they do. I understand why they doing this ....... to play on Pogaćar mindset and put a pressure on him to waste more energy and stuff....
The reality is they don't except Vingegaard to much up to Pogaćar in stage 2 and they told us they didn't (they didn't lie there, why would they do).
Now on big moment they lie, why would they not 😀