“What are they doing?”: Armstrong, Wiggins and Co slam Visma’s “bizarre” tactics on Queen Stage of 2025 Tour de France

Stage 18 of the 2025 Tour de France — the race’s queen stage — was expected to be the battleground where Team Visma | Lease a Bike would finally launch their decisive assault. Instead, it left analysts scratching their heads.

On the latest episode of The Move, Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie, Sir Bradley Wiggins and Spencer Martin dissected Visma’s chaotic showing and, more broadly, their perplexing tactics throughout the entire race. None of the panel could make sense of the Dutch team’s approach — particularly on a day they had marked as pivotal since the Grand Départ.

Jonas Vingegaard did attack on the Madeleine with 71 kilometres to go, but it never materialised into anything substantial. What followed was an incoherent sequence of moves: Matteo Jorgenson pulled hard, then went solo, then suddenly dropped back. By the time the group hit the Col de la Loze, Visma had effectively played all their cards — and Vingegaard didn’t make another serious move until the final kilometre, when Tadej Pogacar promptly countered and took yet more time.

“We’ve spent a lot of time these three weeks questioning their tactics,” said Armstrong. “Watching the race, we’re all asking the same thing — what are they doing? I’m genuinely baffled.”

Wiggins, never shy with his criticism across this Tour, took issue with Visma’s transparency — accusing them of telegraphing their entire gameplan weeks in advance. “One of the things I just can’t get my head around is why they’re so open about what they’re going to do and when they’re going to do it,” Wiggins said. “They’ve basically been saying all along this was the stage, this was the plan — to blow up Pogacar on the Col de la Loze.”

Spencer Martin backed that up: “Yeah, they basically said publicly their whole Tour revolved around cracking Pogacar on this climb.”

But as Wiggins continued, it wasn’t just about revealing plans — it was about the complete lack of execution: “Why would you say that out loud? Just shut up and leave it to the road — catch Tadej by surprise.”

Armstrong, who has long insisted that Pogacar has never looked troubled by Vingegaard throughout the Tour, was blunt about how easy the Slovenian made the Loze climb look: “It was an unbelievably hard climb, and he was just chilling. He was bored. He had two teammates with him and he was eating casually.”

Hincapie tried to strike a more measured tone, at least acknowledging that Visma were trying, even if the strategy was misguided: "Look, at least they were out there trying to do something. Maybe not the right moves, but you could see they were making the effort. I’d love to have seen them going after stage wins.”

But Armstrong wasn’t convinced. For him, the problem wasn’t poor tactics — it was that any tactics at all had been counterproductive: “You know what else they could try? Doing nothing. I don’t think they’ve tried not doing anything. Just let the race go, put the pressure on UAE. For stage 20, I’d seriously consider doing nothing. You’ve got the yellow jersey? Great — you want to win the Tour? You figure it out.”

He continued: “Sure, go for the stage if you want. But don’t be out there pulling on the front, setting tempo for Tadej Pogaxar, just so we can all watch what he does at the finish again. I guarantee you Pogačar’s sitting there wondering what the hell they’re doing. Like, ‘You think you’re coming for my crown? OK, watch this.’”