"Visma increased the pace to keep Pogacar in yellow" - Johan Bruyneel had no doubt of underlying tactic battle

Team Visma | Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates - XRG are already engaged in a full-on battle at the Tour de France even though we have not reached the mountains. On stage 6 the Dutch team put pressure in several different ways including a potential attempt to keep Tadej Pogacar in the yellow and have to go through podium ceremonies for several more days.

"UAE and Pogacar naturally wanted Mathieu to take the yellow jersey," Bruyneel said in The Move podcast, hinting that the late-stage acceleration (much of it not seen on the TV broadcast) was pre-thought out. "We didn't see much of the peloton, but I think Visma increased the pace to keep Pogacar in yellow. That's a strategy, but I don't know.... It doesn't change much either, especially with Tadej."

With Mathieu van der Poel joining the breakaway, there was a perfect opportunity to give away the yellow jersey to a rider who carries no threat for the overall classification and hence allow the Slovenian to increase his recovery time at the end of the stages. "We know that Pogacar and Van der Poel get along well. I don't know if they are friends, but they like each other. Personally, I think there was some kind of agreement between them."

Bruyneel explained that giving up the lead could benefit Pogacar in the face of the complicated stages ahead. "It would also be ideal for Pogacar to give up the jersey. The stages on Thursday and Friday are difficult to control, so they think: let's give up the jersey. Van der Poel was the ideal candidate for that. Now, with that one-second margin, it doesn't change anything, but the ideal is to give it to a team that controls."

However, besides the many attempts to incorporate riders early in the breakaway (including Matteo Jorgenson), Visma also looked to stop UAE's plan on it's tracks: "What was clear was that Visma did not agree. It was seen in Matteo Jorgenson's attack. In my opinion, it wasn't to get away, but to make sure Van der Poel wasn't in the breakaway. He knew perfectly well that they wouldn't let him go."

After the stage Pogacar showed confusion over Visma's tactics, and it's heavily suggest that this is part of the Dutch team's ongoing plan to disrupt the sense of control from Pogacar. "Is it part of a strategy? Who knows. It could be: let's make him angry, so he wants to prove he's the best and make mistakes. If you look at his statements, when he says, 'I don't know what they wanted to do'... that tells me there was 100% an agreement between Van der Poel and Pogacar."