Visma-Lease a Bike cannot catch a break at this Tour de France. Somehow, despite their best efforts, they just keep getting things wrong. Yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogačar – not for the first time this race – put his head in his hands when asked about the tactics of the Dutch team in his post-race press conference after stage 15.
His teammate Tim Wellens had just taken an audacious victory from the breakaway, but the drama came with over 100km of the stage still left when a crash took Jonas Vingegaard out of the back of the peloton. In the name of good sportsmanship, Pogačar had asked his colleagues to slow up and wait for his long-time Danish rival. Bizarrely, however, the team who did not listen to the race leader was Visma themselves. The likes of Wout van Aert and Matteo Jorgenson continued to attack at the front as their general classification hopeful frantically tried to make up time behind.
“Me and Tim were in front and tried to talk to the bunch to calm things down a bit and wait,” the Slovenian said with a disappointed shake of the head. “It didn't work and what was bothering me was that there were three Visma riders still trying to go in the break again. They have Jonas chasing back, it would be much easier for one of them to go into the break and the others waited. It was a weird situation, I was trying to control the race. In the end, it resulted in a victory for our team, so it was pretty good.”
In the end, it always seems to work out how Tadej Pogačar wants it to. That is the power of this gripping stranglehold he has over the biggest bike race in the world. If he wasn’t going to win himself on stage 15 and add to his 21 (yes, an entire Tour’s worth) of stage victories, then it would be one of his close friends and teammates who would do it instead. Tim Wellens is the world champion’s right-hand man, and today, puppet-master Pogačar fancied giving the Belgian rider a chance to go for his own chances in the Tour.
“It's very special, because if there's one rider who deserves a victory in the Tour de France, it is Tim Wellens. He is so dedicated to the team, dedicated to Tadej, he is always five centimetres from Tadej, in training camp, in races, in morale, in everything,” UAE Team Emirates-XRG team manager, Mauro Gianetti, said after the race.
“Today he was in the break and he was in the position to not need to work at the first 50km when it was very hard, and the energy was saved in the first part of the breakaway. He was clever, like always, just in attacking before the long descent. And when he was away behind him they started to look at each other. We enjoyed another fantastic day for the team, especially for Tim.”
Another fantastic day, from another fantastic bike rider, wearing the colours of the most fantastic team in the world right now. Should we ever have expected anything else? He might have needed the go-ahead from Pogačar to make his move, but credit, of course, goes to Wellens himself for executing his attack to perfection. The 34-year-old has now completed the trilogy of stage wins in every Grand Tour.
“It is a very special victory. Everyone knows the Tour de France, everyone wants to ride the Tour de France and not many people win in the Tour de France so it is a beautiful victory,” Wellens smiled after his victory. “I had opportunities and I took them, I had the legs to do it. But of course, I would trade my victory directly for yellow for Tadej in Paris,” he continued – always the loyal teammate.
While there were embraces and celebrations at the UAE bus – as per usual in this Tour de France – the scenes just one hundred metres down the road where Visma-Lease a Bike were convening could not have been more contrasting. The ecstasy was replaced with agony from riders who had, once again, not managed to pull off their elaborate tactical plans. They took the risk of Vingegaard never returning to the bunch after his crash early in the race in order to give Van Aert and Victor Campenaerts a chance in the breakaway, but the Belgian pair finished fourth and second place respectively – positions that Visma are getting all too used to.
“Of course, second is not what we race for, so it's a bit disappointing. But it is what it is,” a dejected Campenaerts shrugged at the finish in Carcassonne.
“Wellens was very strong, very smart, he didn't steal this victory. I knew straight away this was the guy to beat. He has experience, he is going very well. I heard he's in love also, so maybe that gave him some extra power. Wout said, don't be disappointed, we did what we could. But winning is way nicer.”
As the Visma rider points out, winning is the nicest thing about racing a bike – every rider in the Tour de France peloton will likely agree on that. The tricky thing is that one team in particular is getting more than their fair share of wins, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Visma-Lease a Bike, to their credit, are trying all that they can, but their approaches don’t always add up. UAE Team Emirates-XRG, on the other hand, are living the Tour de France dream, riding on a wave of Pogačar and his teammates’ peerless strength. They are the bosses of La Grand Boucle and right now, it’s not looking like anyone will be promoted to their level.
