Jumbo-Visma have ‘torn up rulebook’ but it would be ‘different story’ without Wout Van Aert at Tour de France

Adam Blythe says that Jumbo-Visma have torn up the rulebook with a performance of pure dominance at the Tour de France, and reserved special praise for their Belgian talisman Wout van Aert.

The Dutch team could finish the Tour de France with the yellow, green and polka dot jerseys, and – depending on the victor on Stage 21 – seven stage wins in an almost unprecedented show of excellence at the French Grand Tour.

The maillot jaune ran Van Aert close but eventually finished 19 seconds down as his Belgian team-mate picked up a third stage win of the 2022 Tour de France. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) finished third on the day, with Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) fourth.

Blythe, Orla Chennaoui, Robbie McEwen and Dan Lloyd discussed the reasons behind – and the consequences of – their superiority at the 109th running of the Tour de France on The Breakaway.

“It’s just pure dominance of the whole race,” said Blythe. “Wout van Aert was either in the break or winning the stage.

“The way he was able to put himself in a position to always support Jonas made him a key rider. There’s so many good guys in that team, but I think without Wout there, it might have been a different story. He just opened up so many opportunities.

“But Jumbo Visma just set the bar even higher than Sky did back in 2012 to 2014. After Bradley [Wiggins] won, everyone re-evaluated what they did, and I think everyone after this Tour de France is going to have to start re-evaluating everything once again, because they’ve just torn up the rulebook.”

Dan Lloyd concurred, paying particular note to their late race dominance.

“They’ve also won the last three stages on the trot with three different riders,” said Lloyd.

Vingegaard will ride into Paris on Sunday ahead of the final showdown on the Champs-Elysees with a 3’34” lead over the reigning champion Pogacar, with Welshman Thomas, the 2018 champion, set to complete the podium at 8’13”.

“The whole team is incredible,” said Vingegaard.

“It just shows how close everyone is in this team and how special the bond we have is. Everyone is so happy for each other and I’m also really, really happy for Wout to win today.

“And these guys are really my friends. They are brothers. Yeah, brothers.”

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