'The plan was to follow' – Visma resigned to Pogacar Tour victory

Visma | Lease a Bike deliberately chose to have Jonas Vingegaard follow Tadej Pogačar during Friday's final mountain stage of the Tour de France to La Plagne, with the Dane focusing on the stage win rather than trying to make up the time he trailed the Slovenian by in the general classification.

"The plan was to follow today, because we were certain that Pogačar and UAE would go for the stage today," Head of Racing Grischa Niermann told Wielerflits after the stage. “It wasn’t the day for us to gain four minutes either, so we wanted to win the stage with Jonas." 

The tactic nearly worked, with Vingegaard finishing ahead of Pogačar for the first time in a mountain stage in this edition of the Tour; however, there was a problem in the form of Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), who narrowly held off the duo by two seconds to win his second stage of the Tour. Niermann explained that the team's strategy was clear: make Pogačar do the work and try to beat him in the sprint.

"This is the way to beat Pogačar: let him do the work,” Nierman explained. “He clearly wanted to win too, but in the end, they miscalculated a bit with Thymen. Hats off and congratulations to Thymen and Ineos," said Niermann, crediting Arensman, who added a second mountain top stage win after winning stage 14 to Superbagnéres.

Stage 19 was shortened by 35km, including the removal of the Col des Saises from the route, and this change, influenced Visma’s tactical approach. “That’s partly why we stopped aiming for the general classification. That would have been very difficult now,” Niermann said. “That’s why we went for the stage win.”

“Look at Primož Roglič. He made a good effort, but paid a heavy price on the final climb. Turning the Tour upside down would have been difficult,” Niermann added, pointing to evidence that attacking aggressively might have been counterproductive for their stage win ambitions. 

Roglič rode a very combative stage, featuring in the breakaway, but was caught by the group of general classification contenders shortly before the start of the final climb, and ended the stage in 27th, 12:39 behind the stage winner Arensman. 

With the mountains behind the peloton and only two stages until Paris, Niermann was resigned to the fact that Vingegaard is set to finish runner-up at the Tour de France behind Pogačar for the second successive year.  "Does this mean it's really over? We still have two days in Paris, but normally it's not going to happen," Niermann concluded.

Stage 20 features four categorised climbs, with the hardest being the second category Côte de Thésy, which comes with around 65km from the finish. The finale of the stage is relatively flat and looks set to be a day suited to the breakaway rather than the GC contenders. 

Vingegaard also gave a brief reaction after the stage, speaking to TV2. "Of course, it's a shame. I tried to play the game on the last climb, and I was more after the stage win than I was trying to gain time," Vingegaard explained.