'Look after yourself' – The secret behind Jumbo-Visma’s success in Cahors at the Tour de France
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Updated 23/07/2022 at 12:33 GMT
Frenchman Christophe Laporte ended the host nation’s long wait for a win at the 2022 Tour de France with an opportunistic surge at the end of Stage 19 to win in Cahors. The win represented Jumbo-Visma’s fifth stage win of this year’s race. And Dan Lloyd revealed the reason behind that success on the latest episode of The Breakaway: the team were no longer under pressure.
'Look after yourself' - How Jumbo-Visma gave Laporte freedom to win Stage 19
Jumbo-Visma had the freedom to unleash Christophe Laporte to win on Stage 19 as they have now entered a relatively pressure-free phase of the Tour de France.
The Dutch team have taken an unorthodox approach as a general classification team at the Tour, with riders – Wout van Aert and Christophe Laporte, for example – afforded the freedom to pursue individual success concurrent to Jonas Vingegaard’s yellow jersey aspirations.
Van Aert picked up two wins, on Stages 4 and 8, after opening the Tour with three second-placed finishes. And on Friday, the team let Laporte loose to take Stage 19 honours.
The approach has surprised some. However, talking on The Breakaway ahead of Stage 20, Dan Lloyd explained that Jumbo-Visma had an air of freedom as they approached the ramped finale into Cahors.
“I think the pressure was off after Hautacam [where Vingegaard all but secured yellow],” said Lloyd.
“That was the last day that they thought, ‘we can wrap it up on this stage’ - and I think that they effectively have.
“So from that point onwards, all the talk that we've had about how much energy are they putting into the stage wins or to Wout van Aert’s green jersey, and what impact they might have on Vingegaard’s yellow jersey [became redundant].
“The pressure was off, they needed to keep Vingegaard protected in case of crosswinds or crashes. But towards the end, once he got past that 3km to go banner [the safety net for GC riders], it's like, ‘just look after yourselves’ and they gave Laporte that opportunity.
“He took it with both hands, and it's just rewards really. I think he really deserved that stage win yesterday because of what he's done.”
The Tour continues on Saturday with a 40.7km time trial to Rocamadour, for which the likes of Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ), Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost), Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) and Van Aert will be favourites.
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