Van Aert hits back at Pogacar's pointed Visma comments
Visma | Lease a Bike's decision to keep attacking on stage 15 of the Tour de France even after Jonas Vingegaard was caught drew comment from Tadej Pogačar. Wout van Aert responded during Monday's rest day.
There have been the mildest shades of José Mourinho about some of Tadej Pogačar’s thinly veiled critiques of Visma | Lease a Bike on this Tour de France. The yellow jersey again issued pointed criticism of the team’s strategy after stage 15 to Carcassonne, when he expressed bafflement at the sight of Visma riders on the attack while Jonas Vingegaard was caught behind an early crash.
“If I were in Jonas’ situation, I wouldn’t be the happiest at the dinner table tonight,” Pogačar told Danish broadcaster TV2 after the stage.
Wout van Aert was one of the Visma riders on the offensive at that point, and he would later enter the break of the day with teammate Victor Campenaerts, while Vingegaard finished safely in the peloton alongside Pogačar. Speaking on Monday’s rest day, Van Aert hit back at Pogačar’s comments.
“It’s quite funny that Tadej says that, because he clearly wanted [eventual stage winner Tim] Wellens in the breakaway, so they were essentially doing the same thing,” Van Aert said, according to Het Nieuwsblad.
“And there was a very easy solution. Our group was 25 riders strong, and everyone in there wanted to get into the breakaway. So if Tadej had simply dropped back down to the peloton where Jonas was, he would have shown real sportsmanship. Now he’s complaining about something that isn’t there.”
At one point, Pogačar could be seen chasing down Visma’s Matteo Jorgenson in person, even though the American – a podium outsider before the race – is now out of the GC picture after struggling in the Pyrenees.
“I also noticed that Matteo wasn’t given any space,” Van Aert said. “Maybe Tadej hasn’t noticed yet that Matteo has already lost half an hour in the general classification. Someone should tell him that.”
Tuesday will see Van Aert return to Mont Ventoux for the first time since he won over the Giant of Provence on the 2021 Tour. The Belgian downplayed the prospect of a repeat here, though he has ambitions of nabbing a stage win before the end of the Tour.
“The three mountaintop finishes aren’t really opportunities for me,” he said. “But something is possible in those other three stages, and the finale of the final stage in Paris, with the climb up Montmartre, should definitely suit me.
“That's also the stage where you can expect the peloton to dominate the finale, so you have the most control over the final stage. That's definitely a stage I'm looking forward to.”
