After sowing chaos over the northern side of the Col du Galibier on Wednesday, Jumbo-Visma found themselves in the business of imposing order when the Tour de France crossed back over the other side of the mountain pass on stage 12 to Alpe d’Huez.
A day earlier, Jumbo-Visma threw away the standard playbook and conjured up cycling’s version of the Super Bowl-winning ‘Philly Special’ as they grappled with the conundrum of how to put Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) into difficulty.
Having succeeded in that ambitious mission by putting Jonas Vingegaard into the yellow jersey, the team opted for a more conservative approach as they defended his lead on the road to Alpe d’Huez. The yellow-and-black jerseys massed at the front and imposed a brisk tempo, cycling’s equivalent of repeatedly running the football.
The tactic was blunt but effective. The pacemaking of Sepp Kuss, in particular, helped to pare down the yellow jersey group, with Romain Bardet (DSM) among those burnt off, and although Pogačar placed defiant accelerations near the top, Vingegaard appeared utterly untroubled. His supersonic display on the Col du Granon was followed by a strikingly assured defence of yellow here.
Vingegaard finished the stage alongside Pogačar, Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and his teammate Kuss, 3:23 down on stage winner Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers). In the overall standings, the Dane remains 2:22 ahead of his chief rival Pogačar, with Thomas now third at 2:26.
“I think, in general, after yesterday, we wanted to try to have more of a straightforward day, but also look for opportunities if we sensed any weakness,” Kuss explained atop Alpe d’Huez. “On the last climb, we kept the status quo and just set a rhythm that was hard to attack from.”
When the yellow jersey group hit the lower slopes of Alpe d’Huez, Vingegaard had no fewer than four teammates for company, with Kuss, Steven Kruijswijk, Primož Roglič and green jersey Wout van Aert all taking turns to dissuade would-be attackers. In truth, considering the hardship Jumbo-Visma had imposed on the race 24 hours earlier, they probably didn’t need much dissuading.
“The team was riding super strong, the breakaway wasn’t an issue, and we just rode within ourselves,” Kuss said. “We just [rode] to make a bit of a hard pace, on the Croix de Fer, and we still had almost the whole team on Alpe d’Huez. We rode a steady pace we knew we could manage.”
Roglič
While Kuss was in…
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