"Visma played and lost this time" - Jose De Cauwer believes Jonas Vingegaard will try to win the Tour again in next mountain tests

On Sunday's stage Visma | Lease a Bike tried to dictate the pace of the battle with UAE Team Emirates and especially Tadej Pogacar. However on the slopes of Plateau de Beille, they quickly met the limit of their lineup depth, as Jonas Vingegaard was forced to attack more than 8 kilometers from the line after a strong pull from Matteo Jorgenson.

Belgian commentator and expert José De Cauwer analyzes the stage on Sporza: "They tried to roll out that red carpet for themselves. They have successfully applied that tactical plan several times in recent years. They did everything they had to do, put him in the right place. But they simply ran into someone stronger. In the past, Pogacar has made mistakes in these kinds of situations. He once went after Roglic, for example. Visma played and lost this time. There is always a loser when you enter into a battle."

Pogacar now leads the race by more than 3 minutes. Is that enough of a lead to call the Tour already over? "Normally you would say: yes. We have not seen many cracks in Pogacar. There was that so-called hunger knock in the stage to Le Lioran. But it seems that he is the best rider in this peloton. A different Tour is starting now. Once again. The battle for places 3, 4, 5, 6,... Today Jonas Vingegaard tried to win the Tour, from now on he will ride a bit more controlled. Maybe he will try to win an extra stage. You still have that crazy last day anyway."

"We saw a very good Pogacar. Everyone now agrees that he is the best rider in the world. In addition, with Visma | Lease a Bike I saw a team that dared to try it in their own way. In the gravel stage we saw that they didn't go along with the offensive story, they didn't let Vingegaard ride. Today they went all out, because this was a stage that was his. 'They are better at that than the others', you would hear. That's all true. Until you meet someone who is simply better," he points out.

Regardless, we still have handful of entertaining stages coming up in the third week, and the race is not finished yet. Besides Vingegaard's offensive, we can also hope for a resurge of Remco Evenepoel, who would've certainly liked it better to finish second. "I'm still looking forward to next week, which seems to be perfect for the attackers. They haven't had much success so far. Next week will be fine. And we'll still get a race within the race anyway."