‘You just don’t normally see that’ – Tadej Pogacar lauded as ‘greedy’ Jumbo-Visma seal fifth stage win of Tour de France

Jumbo-Visma’s brilliant Tour de France continued unabated on Friday on Stage 19 when Christophe Laporte made an optimistic surge to victory on the ramped finale in Cahors.

However, the racing instinct and audacity of Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) was as notable as the Dutch outfit’s continued domination – which Dan Lloyd said bordered “greedy” – of the blue ribband event.

“When he started going on that climb today I was like, ‘boom here we go, let’s get juicy’,” began Blythe.

“But I just loved it – the fact he’s having fun [despite the face] he knew that wasn’t going to come to anything.”

The move was quickly shut down by Wout van Aert, but Dan Lloyd lauded Pogacar’s racing instinct despite the fact that – barring accident or incident – Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) has a maiden Tour de France win wrapped up.

“You just don’t normally see that,” added Dan Lloyd. “He’s basically beaten, but he’s like, ‘I might be beaten but I’ll give it a go on a stage that doesn’t suit me whatsoever’.”

“Even at the end, coming fifth on that stage, sprinting right the way to the line.

“I mean, this is a rider who’s won 12 Grand Tour stages, a couple of monuments, two Tour de Frances – he didn’t really need to race today. He just loves it.”

Laporte’s win means that the Dutch team Jumbo-Visma now hold the yellow, green and polka dot jerseys ahead of the final two stages of the 2022 Tour de France, and have won five of the 19 stages.

The team’s depth of talent – with seemingly any rider within their stable capable of winning stages – marks them down as a dream team, says Eurosport expert Blythe.

“Unbelievable,” began Blythe.

“I mean, it’s like the dream team, isn’t it?

“Almost every person in that team is pretty much capable of winning a stage. It was obviously the plan to tee up Laporte today. He got one opportunity, and he took it and won the stage. I mean, there’s people that try for 10 to 15 years in their career to get a stage and he has had one chance, and he’s taken it. Unbelievable.”

Dan Lloyd focused on the sheer scale of their dominance of the 109th running of the Tour, saying their brilliance bordered on greedy.

“Some people might call this greedy,” added Dan Lloyd.

“They have won five of the 19 stages, and have three of the jerseys at this year’s Tour de France,

“But you can’t really do anything but tip your hat to them.

“I mean, they didn’t have to take the responsibility today, because they’ve got everything they need out of this Tour de France already. But when the opportunity presented itself at the end, Laporte was well-positioned. And, more importantly, he was just very strong.”

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 Bisseger (EF Education-EasyPost), Pogacar and Van Aert will be favourites.

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