Erik ten Hag played an important role in conquering Jumbo-Visma’s Tour victory. The Dutch cycling team secured its first victory in the Tour de France last weekend in the person of Jonas Vingegaard. In the run-up to the biggest cycling race, team boss Richard Plugge spoke extensively with Ten Hag. A conversation to which he owes a lot, he said during the ceremony in Den Bosch.
For Jumbo-Visma, the Tour was dominated by rehabilitation. Two years ago, the Dutch team already seemed on its way to victory in the French cycling race, but it had to be seen how Tadej Pogacar was too strong for Primoz Roglic in the time trial. Afterwards, a plan was forged to beat the Slovenian after all. And with success. Vingegaard took the yellow card in the crucial eleventh stage, took a lead of almost three minutes over the Slovenian and helped his team to the first Tour victory in history.
“Someone who has helped me a lot is Erik ten Hag. Someone from a completely different sport, but I wanted to understand from him: how do you come up with tactics? What is the essence of your sport for you?”, says Plugge. “Before you make a game plan, what’s behind it? I’ve had the opportunity to talk to him about that a few times. Just as good football coaches have good football players at their disposal with whom they can win matches, we can also make plans because you have good riders. have at your disposal.”
In the end, the monster victory in the eleventh stage turned out to be sufficient for Vingegaard to secure the Tour victory. With also the polka dot jersey (mountain classification) and the green jersey (sprint classification) it was an edition that will not soon be forgotten. For the first time in 42 years, a Dutch team again managed to win the Tour de France. The last time that succeeded was in 1980, when Ti-Raleigh took the overall victory. Wout van Aert took off with the green jersey, while Vingegaard also captured the polka dot jersey in addition to the yellow jersey.
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