Reflections on the 2024 Tour
Allie Ostrander’s reflections on her attempt to make the Olympic Steeple Chase team ring true for my reflections on the Tour de France this year: it was a beautiful failure.
Visma Lease a Bike has become the team I enjoy cheering for and they entered this tour much differently than anticipated. Their main GC contender, Jonas Vingegaard, managed to make the Tour after only a month and a half of training due to a wreck in a race in April that left him with a punctured lung, broken collarbone, and broken ribs. He shared after his win in Stage 11 of the Tour that he thought he was going to die from the injuries he encountered. While I knew his crash was incredibly serious, that was the first time I heard just how serious it was for Jonas.
As if that wasn’t enough for Visma to handle, one of the most well-rounded riders, Wout Van Aert, also suffered a crash in April that left him with a broken sternum, broken ribs, and a broken collarbone. He shared that he entered the Tour in the worst shape he has ever entered a Tour before due to the limited preparation caused by his injuries.
And again, as if that wasn’t enough, one of their top domestiques, Sepp Kuss, was pulled from the Tour team at the last minute due to COVID.
Visma Lease a Bike fans knew it would be a stretch for this team to perform in the way they have in the past, but it’s impossible to enter a race that holds the Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard rivalry without hope of winning.
Pogacar took the yellow jersey in the 4th Stage but the time was far from insurmountable for Jonas. It was impossible to ignore that Pogacar was in astonishing shape, but Jonas had proven he could beat Tadej in the past and it was starting to look like he could do it again. Jonas’ sprint win over Tadej Pogacar in Stage 11 fueled that hope.
But Stage 19 was the final blow to the Visma team’s GC hopes. Not only could Jonas not attack Tadej Pogacar, but Pogacar tracked down Matteo Jorgenson, another rider for Visma, after what looked like a promising chance for Jorgenson to snag his first Tour Stage win. The finish line photos showed a defeated Jonas and Matteo. Jonas finally accepted defeat to Tadej and likely encountered an onslaught of emotions from the past three months. His wife, Trine, said that there was so little time to process his crash because he went right back to training as soon as he could in hopes of making the Tour, but I’m sure some of the processing was unavoidable after having to accept that a three-peat was not in the cards for him after the Stage 19 time loss.
Sprinting stages, a space where Visma still had hopes of Wout taking a win, often had a final shot of Wout Van Aert in the final running, but never being able to pull off a Stage win. Wout often appeared to hang his head in frustration at making it so close, but not being able to find the last push to pull off victory.
On paper, this Tour was a failure for Visma Lease a Bike. But in full perspective, it was a mighty beautiful failure.
Even having Jonas and Wout make it to the start line is a victory. To show up when we know we aren’t the best is an act of vulnerability many don’t take. For 21 days both riders kept having to face that not only were they not in top shape, but also likely had to face reminders of why they were lacking. Both crashes these riders went through were horrific and a humbling reminder that what these riders do is always on the precipice of life and death.
Watching Matteo get tracked down by Pogacar was heartbreaking to watch. Matteo’s Stage win would have been an exciting victory amidst a difficult tour for Visma. But, there’s something to say for being able to look back knowing we gave it our all and that sometimes there are people around us who just have more to give. Matteo had nothing else in the tank at the end of Stage 19, and Pogacar was simply the better rider.
While I root for Jonas in the Jonas versus Tadej rivalry, it’s impossible not to appreciate the mastery Pogacar is showing on the bike. His victory is certainly well deserved and his dominance is one for the history books. But, there are many victories Visma can celebrate, too, they are just victories that look a bit different than the ones they are used to celebrating.
This Tour was a reminder that we will often be held up to common standards in our day-to-day lives. Societal and cultural standards will often have a clear way to victory. For the Tour, it is stage wins or ending the tour with a jersey. But, oftentimes, there are other perspectives we can take that bring light to victories we may not otherwise see. For Visma, they will certainly be striving for the obvious victories of cycling in the future. But, this year was a reminder that there is more than one way to win the Tour.
