Pogačar Keeps Red — But Is Visma Already Testing Him?

Pogačar still has La Roja, but today felt far less straightforward than the result sheet suggests. Visma helped control the race, chased down the break to keep Van Aert’s red jersey hopes alive and then sent Wout attacking with just 2km remaining. If this is how aggressively they are prepared to race on Stage 2, what happens when the real mountains arrive?

Pogačar was the only rider able to immediately respond to Van Aert’s move, eventually closing him down before finishing third in the sprint. Pogačar later admitted he had been slightly late reacting and had to commit hard to make the catch, so was today simply an opportunistic attack or the first example of Visma forcing him to spend energy when he would rather not?

The clever part was what happened next. Van Aert’s attack failed, but Visma still had Matthew Brennan waiting behind, and the 21-year-old powered away to take his first Grand Tour stage victory. When one move forces Pogačar to react and another Visma rider can still finish the job behind, how difficult could that depth become for UAE over three weeks?

Pogačar now leads Van Aert by nine seconds, with Brennan another second behind, and neither rider is likely to be the man UAE fear most once the biggest climbs arrive. But perhaps that is exactly the point: if Visma can use different riders to chase bonuses, stages and attacks while forcing Pogačar to personally respond, how much unnecessary work can they make the race leader do?

Pogačar still looks like the strongest rider in this Vuelta, and nothing today changed that. But Visma may not need to drop him immediately to make this race difficult. If they can keep attacking from different angles, force him to respond personally and make UAE control every dangerous move, the accumulated pressure could become their biggest weapon. Pogačar has red, but if Visma keep racing like this, can they eventually turn his strength into something they can exploit?