Visma-Lease a Bike set out for their Tour de France rest day ride on Monday morning, but with their seven remaining riders somewhat in mourning, having lost their talismanic leader Jonas Vingegaard from the race after his crash and abandon on stage 15.
Though no easy feat, they know they will have to move on and change tack to try and get something out of the final seven stages, having lost the Dane in a flash as he came down heavily with just over 20km to race on Sunday. He had broken his collarbone, and was put into an ambulance in pain.
What was building up to be an exciting final chapter to their plan for the Plateau de Solaison, having paced for much of the stage to set up Vingegaard, ended in disaster for Visma. Also without Wout van Aert due to an elbow injury before the race, they had placed all of their eggs in their leader's basket, which begs the question: where do they go from here?
"What is there to say? I don't have much other than it's gutting. We're on stage 15, and we had no plan B; we were really all in with Jonas, believed in it, and I thought it was beautiful," said US rider Matteo Jorgenson as he debriefed from the finish of a dramatic and sad day at the Tour.
"Today was going really well. He was on a really good day, I think, and… bike racing sucks sometimes, it really does.
"As often happens in sport, you have a plan, you're in good shape, and these things happen. They're hard to accept, but they have to be accepted. We have a different Tour [now], but I'm at least gonna think about what happened today, hopefully check in with Jonas tonight, then we can take the rest day."
This is the first time Vingegaard hasn't finished a Grand Tour in his career, adding to the shock of the crash. In eight of his nine three-week race appearances before this, his 10th, the Dane had finished in second or first – the only exception being his debut at the Vuelta in 2020 – and his recent success at the Giro d'Italia completed the set of GT victories.
Even still, Visma as a team have moved on from losing their leader at a major goal with success, with lead sports director Marc Reef pointing to previous examples as he gave the first update to the press in the wake of the crash on Sunday.
"I think at this moment it's way too early. We have a rest day tomorrow. This evening, we just need to settle this in and then from there, tomorrow we look further to the upcoming success," said Reef after stage 15.
"Within this team, it has happened a few times already. I think that 2021 was the first time that Primož went out, and then we really went back to win some stages," he added, with Van Aert and Sepp Kuss bringing home wins after Roglič crashed and abandoned during the first week.
"In the Vuelta in 2022, maybe also Primož went out and then also Robert Gesink almost won a stage. It is also part of cycling that this can happen, and, of course, we are still with a good team here, and we also really, in the last days, the riders grew again back into the race. I think that [on Monday] we will sit together and we can look ahead."
In Victor Campenaerts and Kuss, Visma have two former Tour de France stage winners among their ranks, but their first chance to try and take victory will be on Tuesday's individual time trial, where Edoardo Affini, Bruno Armirail and Matteo Jorgenson will try to upset Remco Evenepoel.
Winning a stage will become the only objective for the seven men left racing with Vingegaard, with debutants Per Strand Hagenes and Davide Piganzoli also great options from a break, as potential attackers on flat finishes for the former and the climbs for the latter.
Although this wasn't the plan, with freedom to chase breakaways every day, they have more than enough quality to get something out of this race, and add to their victory from the team time trial on stage 1 – which feels like a lifetime ago.
Challenging Tadej Pogačar for victory here meant months of targeted preparation for all of Vingegaard's domestiques to bring their best all in support of his ambitions. Despite those specific sacrifices, they will have to go on without him, as Jorgenson says.
"It's difficult to put into words, but it's our whole life. We spend most of the year on top of a mountain, training, weighing our food, we do everything," said the US rider.
"Fifteen stages in, I wouldn't say perfectly, but we've done pretty well, we were in a good position, and it's just always a mental job to try to accept these things."
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