Visma-Lease a Bike’s aggressive, non-stop attacking Tour de France tactics backfired against UAE Emirates-XRG and an unstoppable Tadej Pogačar.
That’s the verdict of UAE Emirates-XRG sport manager Joxean Matxín Fernández, who told Velo that after Pogačar rolled out of the Pyrénées with such a formidable lead, they could sense that Visma had used so much energy that the yellow jersey was all but theirs.
“In my personal opinion, Visma came with the idea of trying to wear out Tadej with endless attacks. And in the end, they ended up only wearing themselves out,” Matxin told Velo. “They attacked us so much they wore themselves out.”
Visma and Jonas Vingegaard came into this Tour believing that constant pressure would be the best way to crack Pogačar and reclaim yellow, perhaps in a replay of how they won the 2022 and 2023 editions.
In the end, Pogačar proved impermeable against the attacks from Vingegaard, who could never truly mount a serious threat at any point of the race despite an aggressive tilt from the “Killer Bees.”
Despite constant pressure from Visma all the way into the Alps, the Dane suffered crippling losses in the stage 5 time trial and again on the Hautacam summit finale to open the Tour’s first major climbing stages.
Coupled with those psychological and numerical blows, the Peyragudes climbing time trial saw Pogačar put a death grip on the yellow jersey.
“We were almost predictable in how we raced this Tour because we only attacked at the right moment,” he said, referring to the big moves in the first week, on Hautacam and the decisive time trial at Peyragudes.
“And it also helps the tactics when you have the best cyclist in the world.”
‘The tactic was to pick the right moment’
After winning four stages against an onslaught from Visma-Lease a Bike, Pogačar and UAE switched to a surprisingly more conservative tactic in the final week of the Tour.
Some expected Pogačar to keep reeling off stage wins and perhaps even surpass his haul of six stage wins in 2024.
In fact, the Slovenian’s advantage only grew by 17 seconds in the final eight stages.
Rather than pile on, Pogačar didn’t win another stage. Why?
UAE was certainly bracing for more attacks, but Pogačar was confident he could fend them off.
Once people dislike Visma because they thought their tactics were boring and overly calculated… now people find annoying Visma because they do too much and waste energy unnecessarily pic.twitter.com/3ObTXDZgZ8
— Nikola (@BohunickaNikola) July 11, 2025
There were other reasons, too. Matxín pointed out that the team was riding with one man down — top climbing domestique João Almeida pulled out in stage 9 with injuries — and Pogačar was fending off signs of a minor cold.
Rather than risk an attack on their flank, UAE opted for a slightly more conservative approach with eyes on the prize waiting in Paris.
“The main goal was always the yellow jersey,” Matxin told Velo. “After four victories, it wasn’t so important to win one stage more – don’t enter into the battle of the breakaways, don’t worry about statistics, just focus on the yellow jersey. Sometimes that’s not the most exciting way to race, but it’s the most coherent.”
As the Tour turned toward Mont Ventoux and Col de la Loze, two summits that had proven tricky for Pogačar in the past, UAE was bracing for more attacks that never came.
Visma lit it up on Ventoux, but everyone soon realized that Vingegaard simply didn’t have the horsepower left to truly rattle Pogačar.
“We always tried to maintain the calm, and keep our eye on when it was the right moment to push, the right moment to attack, and when it was the right moment to control,” Matxín said.
“For the most important thing was the ‘timing,’ and to pick the right moments to make the race. I believe we did that in this Tour.”
‘We lost a podium and the team GC’
Matxín said Visma’s aggressive tactics never altered their tactical game plan for this Tour, which was to take early gains and defend them.
Matxín admitted that João Almeida’s absence shaped how the team could race in across the Pyrénées and Alps.
“Everyone was saying at the beginning of the Tour that Visma had the better team. I don’t agree with that, because with João Almeida, we would have been a different team,” Matxín said, referring to the untimely exit of the Portuguese rider in stage 9.
“I do not doubt that,” he said. “When we lost Almeida, we lost a podium spot, maybe at least one stage victory, and the best team’s prize.”
The team didn’t have the legs to chase down breakaways on Superbagères or La Plagne — both won by the attacking Thymen Arensman — or on Col de la Loze, when Ben O’Connor won with a long-distance solo attack in the Tour’s “queen stage.”
Flashbacks… will this Visma tactic work again on Pogačar?
: Luca Bettini #TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/muRzX7bze1
— Lukáš Ronald Lukács (@lucasaganronald) July 16, 2025
“That impacted our tactics in the last week because we lacked the strength to chase the breaks and set the high pace on the climbs because Almeida was the last rider for Tadej,” Matxin said. “We had to alternate who was the last rider to pull, sometimes with Adam [Yates], sometimes with Jonny [Narváez]. So we had to adjust this timing.”
Pogačar finished second at Superbagères and Col de la Loze, and third at La Plagne. Could he have won at least one of those with Almeida pulling? Matxín is convinced.
‘Tadej can get even better’
What’s next for Pogačar?
After pulling the plug on racing the Vuelta a España — something insiders say was Pogačar’s decision — he will race the Canadian one-days, the world championships in Rwanda, and return to Il Lombardia to close out his season in October.
Next year, Pogačar will be one yellow jersey away from joining the “five-win” club of Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain. Chris Froome, with four wins, is the only rider who won four yellow jerseys who did not go on to win a fifth.
Has Pogačar peaked? Matxín doesn’t think so.
“I believe Tadej can still get better. Last year, we believed he had a margin to improve. With the nutrition, with the position, doing things under a controlled environment, we can see these improvements,” Matxín told Velo. “These small improvements can still add up, but we are seeing now Tadej at his best.”
UAE knows it needs to keep pushing the accelerator and cannot rest on its laurels. As Visma showed this year, the evolution of the peloton is stopping for no one.
Remco Evenepoel to dethrone Tadej Pogacar?
Eddy Merckx doesn’t think so pic.twitter.com/lgmUOQEECD
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) July 30, 2025
The 2025 Tour de France was the fastest in history.
“Not just Vingegaard, but the entire peloton. Everyone talks about the record on Mont Ventoux, but four riders broke the record on Ventoux,” Matxín said. “The bikes, the nutrition, the training, the recovery — everything has improved. Every team and every rider has gotten better over the years.”
Yet there’s no denying that with four yellow jerseys within six years, Pogačar is at the top of the cycling world.
Matxín and the UAE team are relishing the moment.
“That’s cycling. We’ve all passed through moments when someone else is winning everything and you’re fighting for crumbs. Cycling is like the climbs, sometimes things go easy downhill, other times everything is steep and difficult,” Matxín said.
“Now we have the luck to enjoy a rider like Tadej Pogacar, who is the best rider in the world.”