Visma | Lease a Bike hoped to pressure Tadej Pogacar and his UAE Emirates XRG team with advanced riders during the tenth stage of the Tour de France. Although Simon Yates managed to win the stage, they couldn’t make it difficult enough for the world champion. "But we are convinced they won’t be very happy tonight either that we won the stage. And that way, they get a bit more frustrated every day," Victor Campenaerts claimed after the stage about their main rival.
Besides the sporting battle on the bike, there seems to be a psychological warfare taking place this Tour de France between the teams of rivals Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar. The Slovenian already made several critical remarks about Visma | Lease a Bike’s tactics in the opening week, which Campenaerts finds encouraging.
Pogacar and Vingegaard crossed the finish line together on Monday - photo: Cor Vos
"But we are convinced they won’t be very happy tonight either that we won the stage. And that way, they get a bit more frustrated every day. They see conspiracy theories in these matters," said the time trial specialist after a day in the breakaway.
"The plan was simple: we had to be in the breakaway. Secretly, we also hoped UAE would be a bit more aggressive and say: ‘We absolutely don’t want a Visma rider in the break.’ That was truly the case over the past days, and we loved seeing how much energy they spent making sure we were not in the break. But today they played it smarter," he added.
"After half an hour of racing, we basically said: ‘Simon (Yates, ed.), focus on the stage win.’" So, the stage victory wasn’t the main goal during the tenth stage, but Campenaerts is very pleased with the outcome. "This was definitely a secondary objective for us. The general classification is the highest goal, but we also want to win stages. It’s great to head into the rest day like this."
The 33-year-old Belgian is enjoying the rivalry with UAE Emirates XRG. "I’ve never experienced this before, being right in the middle of it," he refers to being part of a team competing for overall victory in the Tour de France. But that’s not the only thing that stands out about his ‘new’ team.
According to Campenaerts, plans for the Tour de France are already being made during the first high-altitude training blocks of the season. "That’s just amazing. For me, that’s truly enjoyable, having that plan beforehand. That’s really the big difference compared to teams I rode for before: now we try to decide what’s going to happen on race day ourselves. And we usually succeed."
"I can’t tell you how many riders message me asking: ‘What’s the plan for tomorrow?’ I was that rider myself last year, sending Wout (van Aert, ed.) a message asking: ‘When are you guys going to make a move?’"
After a day in the attack, Campenaerts hopes Visma | Lease a Bike will keep trying to put pressure on Pogacar in the coming weeks. "We will do everything to make it as hard as possible for Tadej and his teammates. But he is incredibly strong, so we’re going to have to dig deep into our trick bag."
Although so far they’ve managed to get under the skin of the world champion and his team, they haven’t succeeded in dropping Pogacar during the race yet. "That’s very difficult," Campenaerts admits. "If you want to drop the best rider in the world... But we are going to do absolutely everything to try. And I’m sure: in Paris, we’ll be able to say: ‘We really gave it our all.’"
