The hot-tempered Van Aert, in particular, started throwing his water bottles the moment he got back to the team bus after the race.
As a team that had been dead set on overturning the general classification on the Baiye Plateau climb, it was undoubtedly a huge failure. Not only had Pogačar extended his lead over Vingegaard by more than another minute, but Vingegaard hadn't even managed to beat the second-place rider, Huang Chong.
Although their team would never verbally admit defeat, let alone give up on the Tour de France.
But everyone on the team understood the reality. Their leader was more than two minutes behind Pogačar in the general classification, and with Pogačar's form being terrifyingly good this year, reversing such a large time gap was basically impossible.
So, on the second week's rest day, Vismar's team manager, Pulver, sought out Vingegaard, who was in the middle of his recovery, and spoke to him bluntly:
