Tour de France | Team Visma: Jonas Vingegaard and his obsessive "killer bees"

Jonas Vingegaard's team, Visma, has only one goal for this Tour de France : to exhaust Tadej Pogačar to the limit. So far, the Slovenian has held his own. But now he faces a showdown this week on Hautacam, where he finally lost the Tour to Jonas Vingegaard three years ago. "We haven't been able to break him yet," admitted Sepp Kuss at the end of the tenth stage. With the American in the lead, Visma had done a lot that day: sending two men into the breakaway, one of whom, Briton Simon Yates , also won the stage.

Working for the right moment

In the group of favorites, Vingegaard's helpers, clad in yellow and black and nicknamed the "Killer Bees," had repeatedly caused energy-sapping acceleration. So far, without success. "But we'll keep trying, every day. Because you never know when the moment will come when he'll collapse," said Kuss, referring to Pogačar, his racing team's main rival. Everything else is subordinate to this goal. Stage victories like that of Giro winner Yates are often taken as bycatch. "I actually joined the group to be there for Jonas in case something unusual happened in the group of favorites in the finale. But when it became clear that the gap was large enough, I reoriented myself and was able to ride on my own," Yates said, describing the course of the race and his prioritization.

One could almost call it an obsession. On some days, Visma pushed the pace in the peloton primarily to keep Pogačar in the yellow jersey . Not because they particularly wanted to see their rival win. Rather, the reason was to drain the Slovenian's energy from victory ceremonies and press conferences.

Remarkable decline

After the ride through the Massif Central, Irishman Ben Healey relieved the 26-year-old favorite and slipped into the yellow jersey from the breakaway. By Thursday evening at the latest, after the first ride through the Pyrenees, Tadej Pogačar is likely to be back in yellow. Or will it be his rival Vingegaard? Hautacam marks one of the few setbacks in the career of the high-flyer from Slovenia. In 2022, the Dane took more than a minute off him there – and won the overall Tour classification . He was accompanied at the time by Belgian classics specialist Wout van Aert.

This year, the mountaineering squad is of even higher quality. Matteo Jorgenson, in fifth place overall – just 20 seconds behind Vingegaard – is already Visma's second option in the classification. Simon Yates also exemplifies his own class on the climb. And then there's former Vuelta winner Kuss. He's particularly looking forward to the French-Spanish border mountains: "The mountains in the Pyrenees suit me. We'll continue trying to break Pogačar and his team there."

Few helpers

The Slovenian and the Emirates team, however, will have to do without their most important helper: João Almeida dropped out after a fall. The Portuguese is not only a formidable climber, but was also well placed in the overall standings. "We now have to change our strategy. Instead of two leaders, we now have just one with Tadej. And the other helpers will have more work to do," team boss Mauro Gianetti explained to "nd". This makes the grueling work easier for the opponents, especially Vingegaard and his team. And the Dane has another advantage: he is just as explosive as Pogačar this year. "That gives me confidence. I can see that the training has paid off and I've improved," he said.

Even if many details at the start of the second week of the Tour seem to favor Vingegaard, even taken together, they don't compensate for the advantage Pogačar has on the scoresheet: a 77-second lead over Vingegaard. It's precisely this constellation that makes the stages in the Pyrenees seem more interesting than they did a year ago. Vingegaard and Visma just need to find the right leverage to break the barriers – while maintaining their own robustness.