"Visma tried to disrupt it with all kinds of attacks" - Pogacar wins dominantly, but Visma and Vingegaard pushed him to the limit

Tadej Pogacar has now, in classic fashion, won two stages in a row and has moved in deeper into the yellow jersey and a likely overall win. However it certainly wasn't an easy day for him, and before the TV broadcast, he had to respond to Team Visma | Lease a Bike's attacks quite a few times.

"Today we wanted to take control on the climbs, but Visma tried to disrupt it with all kinds of attacks. I am very happy with how Pavel [Sivakov] rode today, and the rest of the team," the Slovenian said in a post-race interview.

Visma knew of UAE's plan but did not let them take the race at their will. Besides having Sepp Kuss in the day's breakaway, the team had Matteo Jorgenson attack twice on both the Col de la Madeleine and Col de la Croix de Fer, to which the World Champion had to respond.

"They attacked before the top of the Croix de Fer, and they wanted to drop me on the descent. They made it quite dangerous on the first part, I didn't like that. But that's modern cycling. Pavel came back and regained control, then it was all fine".

But as was the case at the Côte de Domancy, UAE did not wait for Visma to deploy their tactics, and instead took to the front to launch Pogacar early on and avoid being outsmarted. "It was a matter of defending to keep Visma in check, that's why I started. I kept a good pace until the top, I am very happy that I was able to defend the jersey like that".

And then with an attack with 11.5 kilometers to go, Pogacar was able to do what no-one can prevent him from doing. "Jonas was very strong today, but I didn't want to go too deep. It was very hot, and a very long climb. Fortunately, I had enough time to take it easy and recover in the last kilometer. But you know they'll be stronger in the Tour. But then we also have two new climbers, so that's nice".