UAE Team Emirates-XRG vowed to win a stage for Pogačar after the crash, but with Jay Vine, Pavel Sivakov, and Pablo Torres also out, the team is down to four riders and Vermaerke is the one attacking daily. He's collected two combativity prizes, on stage 14 and stage 16, and his stage 14 move by his own admission wasn't even planned. Told FloBikes after stage 16: «I think every day you're in front of the race, you kind of just build that confidence that you can be there the next day and you deserve to be there.» That's a rider auditioning for a bigger role, not just carrying a flag for his leader.