Campenaerts salvages second for Visma after Vingegaard's early scare

It all started so badly for Visma | Lease a Bike.

Inside the opening 20km of Sunday stage 15 of the Tour de France it was panic stations, their team leader, Jonas Vingegaard starting in second place overall, caught behind a crash, the yellow jersey briefly riding further up the road than the already huge 4.13 deficit. 

In the end, though, it wasn’t so bad, Victor Campenaerts and Wout van Aert taking second and fourth place respectively from one of the day's many breakaways. 

Of the two Belgians, Campenaerts was clearly stronger, attacking what remained of his group with 3km to go, just before Van Aert reached them, crossing the line 1:28 behind compatriot Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

Wellens had been patient all day, biding his time, never making moves, only ever reacting until the race winning attack came with 43km to go, just as their four-man group had been joined by four more. 

"He attacked from the back, just when the car told us to watch out for the highest point of the route,” Campenaerts said. "Tim must have ridden phenomenally well. After five minutes we already knew we wouldn't see him again.” 

The only way Visma could play for the win with their two Belgians would be if the large chasing group came back, but it would not happen.

"He joined us 5km from the finish and in the earpiece he told me to aim for second place. That was the highest I could get,” Campenaerts said.

In what was a chaotic day there was no rest for anyone, attacks going, breakaways forming, being caught, then reforming. Both Campenaerts and Van Aert had infiltrated a 25-man group hoping the race would ease, but, according to Campenaerts, that’s not how it works these days. 

“It was a good situation, but in 2025, the final of a race starts 100km from the finish,” he said. “In a 170km stage like today, you have to race to get away, count to five, and then the final starts.”

Stage 15 between Muret and Carcassonne was an extreme example of that. Winning breakaways rarely have time to relax, but on Sunday the peloton only settled, happy with the breakaway, 100km in, just before the attacks started in the front group. 

Van Aert, who placed fourth, conceded his team mate was the stronger on the day. 

“I felt pretty tired after the first two hours, pulling all the time,” he explained. “I think he was stronger on the uphill parts so it was good that I had him ahead of me and I could also sit on in the group. Then in the final it was downhill so it was better for a heavy guy like me and it was quite a surprise that I was still in the race for the podium."

The early crash which caught out Vingegaard added to the aggressive tactics to make for a frantic, if incredibly entertaining day’s racing, where balance was key. “When Jonas was was behind it was hard to play the right tactics," Van Aert continued. “We wanted to be in the break but we also somehow wanted it to slow down so he could come back in the bunch, so that was a bit tricky but I think we managed it well.”

For the team’s sport manager, Grischa Niermann Vingegaard was the clear priority.

“If we know he’s not coming back then we call everybody back,” the German explained. “But in that situation we thought the best that can happen is that the front group goes away fast and then the rest of the group with Tadej [Pogačar] will slow down.

“It was a bit chaotic because the jury told the cars they can go through and close the gap, but the cars didn’t go through, so that made it a bit harder for Jonas to come back, and of course with all the attacking it was not possible to slow them down.”