{"id":413704,"date":"2026-02-08T00:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T00:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/413704\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T00:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T00:05:08","slug":"last-year-we-were-well-on-the-way-to-cracking-tadej-pogacar-visma-ds-insists-jonas-vingegaards-2026-gamble-will-strengthen-tour-de-france-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/413704\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cLast year we were well on the way to cracking Tadej Pogacar\u201d \u2013 Visma DS insists Jonas Vingegaard\u2019s 2026 gamble will strengthen Tour de France bid"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\u201cLast year his interviews afterwards showed we were well on the way to cracking Tadej,\u201d he said, referring to Pogacar\u2019s visible fatigue during the Tour<\/a>. The message is not that Visma believe they already had the upper hand, but that they saw enough to justify changing the route rather than lowering expectations.Why the Giro is part of the solution, not the problem<\/p>\n

Externally, the Giro Tour double is being framed as a risk that could compromise Visma\u2019s July ambitions. Internally, the hierarchy remains unchanged. \u201cWe keep aiming to win the Tour, the biggest race in the world,\u201d Niermann said. \u201cBeating Tadej in the Tour is the highest thing we can achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Giro is being used as a tool, not an alternative objective. Niermann was clear that Visma believe Vingegaard can still peak later in the season. \u201cWe also definitely believe he can be better in the Tour than in the Giro,\u201d he said, emphasising that the Italian race is not intended to be the final target.<\/p>\n

That confidence is grounded in Vingegaard\u2019s own history rather than theory. Visma points repeatedly to his Tour Vuelta combinations, where sustained Grand Tour racing sharpened rather than dulled his level. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a guarantee,\u201d Niermann acknowledged, \u201cbut we do have the data from his Tour Vuelta combination,s and that makes us believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reference to data matters. This is not an emotional response to losing to Pogacar twice, nor an attempt to simply match what Pogacar himself has done. It is Visma applying the same evidence-led thinking that underpinned Vingegaard\u2019s rise in the first place.<\/p>\n

Accepting risk because standing still is worse<\/p>\n

What Visma are openly admitting is that repeating the same preparation would likely produce the same outcome. Niermann was explicit about that reality. \u201cWe were doing well, but ultimately not good enough,\u201d he said. \u201cNow there\u2019s a different route again, and we have to approach it differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

That willingness to accept risk is itself revealing. Visma are not framing 2026 as a year of consolidation or damage limitation. The Giro Tour double exists precisely because they still believe the Tour can be won, not because they have accepted Pogacar\u2019s dominance as inevitable.<\/p>\n

Niermann stopped short of outlining how Visma intend to turn that belief into a decisive edge. \u201cWe already have an idea, but we still have to fine-tune it,\u201d he said, offering no further detail. That restraint is telling. The team are not selling certainty. They are selling intent.<\/p>\n

The gamble is real. So is the logic behind it. And for Visma, the greater risk would have been pretending that the last two Tours did not demand a fundamentally different answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cLast year his interviews afterwards showed we were well on the way to cracking Tadej,\u201d he said,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,119780,9046,101,8782,36242,6549,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-413704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-grischa-niermann","10":"tag-jonas-vingegaard","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tadej-pogacar","13":"tag-team-visma-lease-a-bike","14":"tag-tour-de-france","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}