After stage 12 of the Tour de France, Grischa Niermann – Visma-Lease a Bike’s head of racing – acknowledged that Jonas Vingegaard was outperformed by a superior Tadej Pogacar.
“Yeah, I think Jonas was feeling well, but on the last climb, of course, Pogacar was clearly the best, and in the end, he also suffered a lot,” Niemann said. “For now, it’s a heavy defeat, of course, we hope for more, but Jonas still finished second, it’s not the end of the world”.
“So I haven’t spoken to the riders yet, but it was a very hard day, and in the end, the best rider won.”
“I think it was, for sure, not his best day. But yeah, he’s still, he’s still the best of the rest. But congrats to Tadej, to UAE, they showed who is the strongest rider here.”
The Dutch team adjusted their strategy as Vingegaard’s key support, Matteo Jorgenson, struggled noticeably during the stage, dropping back earlier than anticipated.
“Yeah, Matteo was not on a good day. I mean, we cannot look into the riders. We had a plan, and then all sudden, Matteo dropped. So that was, of course, not according to what we wanted,” explained Niermann.
