‘That’ll be the way to crack them’ – How Ineos and Jumbo-Visma can isolate Tadej Pogacar at the Tour de France

ByEurosport

Published 09/07/2022 at 17:21 GMT

Tadej Pogacar doubled up on the brutal gravel ramp of La Super Planche des Belles Filles to strengthen his grip on the yellow jersey. The two-time defending Tour de France winner put on an imperious showing ahead of Saturday’s undulating 186.3km Stage 8 from Dole to the Swiss city of Lausanne. And the question put forward on The Breakaway was thus: how to stop Pogacar?

‘It’s not on the climbs’ – How to crack Pogacar

Tadej Pogacar denied Jonas Vingegaard at the death to follow up his Stage 6 win with an even more impressive Stage 7 showing. , and the post-race Breakaway discussed how to stop the Slovenian

The 23-year-old stretched his lead to 35 seconds over nearest challenger Vingegaard in the general classification, after the pair denied the final escapee - Lennard Kamna (Bora–Hansgrohe) - in the closing metres of a 176.3km ride from Tomblaine to La Super Planche des Belles Filles.

Jumbo Visma’s Vingegaard attacked from the Slovenian superstar’s slipstream on a brutal final climb that maxed out at a 24% gradient to zip past first Pogacar and then Kamna, but the Slovenian found an extra gear to reply and deny Vingegaard at the death.

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Vingegaard – 35 seconds in arrears – and Ineos Grenadiers pair Geraint Thomas - at 1’10” - and Adam Yates - at 1’30” - are the Slovenian’s closest challengers.

Orla Chennaoui hosting the post-race Breakaway, asked the panel of Adam Blythe, Dan Lloyd and Robbie McEwen what those respective teams must do to crack the maillot jaune. The focus should be - the consensus was - to apply pressure to his team.

“I don’t think UAE are at the front enough,” said Blythe.

“I don’t think they like to control it. They want it to control itself, [and then] once it’s settled, they’ll take control.

“If Ineos can slide one or two riders into a big break of 20, and really start to put the pressure on UAE to start to ride then, that’ll be the way to crack them.

“It’s easy to talk about, but it’s so difficult to control.

“We’ve seen [in] the last two days how hard it is to get in a breakaway, and maybe [Tom] Pidcock, maybe [Daniel] Martinez… [Adam] Yates… if they can just slide themselves in there, and they can get a couple of guys around them – riders riding for the stage win and riders riding for the GC - in that break, then they can work really well together.

“It’s not on the climbs that they crack them [UAE], it’s going to be everything else around it, really isolating Pogacar and his team.”

Highlights: Pogacar claims stunning win on La Super Planche to strengthen grip on yellow

McEwen – a winner of 12 stages at the Tour de France – added that teams must first go for Pogacar's supporting cast, and then use numbers against the 23-year-old.

“You’ve got to ride his team off the wheel,” added McEwen

“You’ve got to attack on a climb to get rid of his team first. Then you can start to use those numbers against him.”

Bradley Wiggins, speaking to Matt Stephens after the stage, saw cause for optimism in the performance of Vingegaard ahead of the high mountain stages.

“It was brilliant,” began the 2012 Tour de France winner.

“Just the excitement, watching that right to the line there. It was such a grind, that last 150 metres.

“It looked like Kamna was going to win, and then Vingegaard comes over the top, distances Pogacar… Pogacar, you could see the moment where he thought, ‘I’m going for this.’

“Vingegaard is going to be a real threat in the higher mountains in this race. Pogacar - one day in yellow and two stage wins – it was an incredible performance.”

The race continues on Saturday with a foray into the Jura mountains with the undulating 186.3km Stage 8 from Dole to the Swiss city of Lausanne, with another ramped finale.