Grischa Niermann: We're not going to roll out the red carpet for Tadej 🥊
The tension continues to rise between the two best teams, as Geraint Thomas offers his analysis on what it means for everyone else at the Tour de France
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Chasing each other down, blocking riders in feed zones, constantly getting under each other’s skin, and even pushing - the rivalry between Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates-XRG has become one of the most talked-about and debated storylines at this year’s Tour de France, with both cycling giants becoming increasingly frosty towards each other over the last few days.
It should be welcome news to cycling fans and those who embrace genuine rivalry within the sport. Still, the relationship between UAE and Visma is certainly affecting the overall pattern within the race, with both teams employing aggressive racing tactics that have stunted the opportunities for breakaways.
I spoke to Grischa Niermann, the sports director of Visma-Lease a Bike, about the rivalry and veteran rider Geraint Thomas, who has experienced it all in his long career. Back when Ineos Grenadiers and Team Sky were competing for top honours in Grand Tours, they had several feuds with other squads, including Movistar and whichever team Alberto Contador was riding for at the time.
It wasn’t exactly like what we see now, partly because Sky was so dominant but also because the racing was less aggressive back then. For example, during Sky’s heyday, they would ride defensively during most of the first week at the Tour de France, then wait for Chris Froome, Bradley Wiggins, or Geraint Thomas to create differences in the time trials or the first summit finish.
“It’s no different to normal, really. They, Visma and UAE, have always had that rivalry because they’re the two best teams with the two strongest riders but when you see a Visma guy go and then a UAE guy is quick to close it down and vice versa, with Alpecin also in the mix as well, like on a stage like yesterday, I wouldn’t read too much into it. They just both want a lot of success,” Thomas told me and other members of the press at the start of stage 8 in Saint-Méen-le-Grand.
“We had it similar with Movistar and things, but at the same time, we had a slightly different mentality and just did what needed to be done in the first half of the race. We were definitely a lot more conservative compared to now, whereas UAE and Visma just look at every opportunity to make it hard. Everyone is talking about Visma wanting it hard all the time to crack Pogačar, because maybe that’s happened once, but I don’t know if he’ll crack. This hard racing is going to hurt a lot of people come the end,” the Welshman said.