MUR-DE-BRETAGNE, France (Velo) — Jonas Vingegaard was quietly cursing second place to Tadej Pogačar atop the explosive Mur-de-Bretagne a week into the Tour de France, but everyone inside the Visma-Lease a Bike was celebrating.
The Killer Bees were stunned Wednesday when Vingegaard ceded more than one minute to Pogačar in the TT, but the searing finale revealed that the Dane is ready to fight for this Tour.
On Friday, the fighting Dane was back, and everyone knows the Tour is on.
“I had the good legs today,” Vingegaard told Velo. “The team kept me out of trouble and normally I could say I would really be happy with second, but in my opinion I made a few mistakes in the sprint.”
What happened?
“You never know if it would change anything, but when you make a small mistake, you’d like to do it differently,” Vingegaard said. “I should have started my sprint a second or two earlier and you could have surprised a bit. It could have been closer at least.”
Those are fighting words for the mild-mannered Dane, who has shaken off all signs that things might have been off following the TT debacle.
‘This is a very good second place’
Seeing Vingegaard take it straight to Pogačar — and even show a tinge of regret — means that the fight is back for Vingegaard.
No team is going to celebrate second place, but the mood was bright around the Visma team bus as Vingegaard and Matteo Jorgenson cooled down.
“Even when there was an attack, you could see Jonas easily jump back. He was able to stay on Pogacar’s wheel, so this is a very good second place,” Visma sport director Marc Reef told Wielerflits. “We’ve seen all week that when there’s an explosive climb, Jonas is able to follow Pogacar, so that gives us confidence.”
Pogačar took more time on everyone, except Vingegaard (not counting time bonuses).
After the TT hiccup, the team is back on track.
“Jonas is doing great. We are all happy with his performances. I think the TT was an off-day,” Jorgenson told Velo. “The whole team is doing well, Jonas is going well, and I see him confident and eager to take this on.”
Even more important for Visma is that the team has largely avoided the crashes and other mishaps that have marred the team in the past. Besides one tumble for Sepp Kuss, no other major riders have crashed.
“You can have a bad day. I had a bad day with the TT, and normally I don’t have so many bad days,” Vingegaard said. “It was not nice but still I believe in myself.”
Jorgenson in the top 10: ‘Matteo is super strong’
Things are buzzing with Jorgenson also finishing off the first full week in sixth overall.
After João Almeida crashed Friday and tumbled out of the top 10, it means that Vingegaard is the only rider among the “Big 4” who has a teammate still near the top of the GC.
That will give Visma an extra tactical card to play the deeper Jorgenson can ride into this Tour.
“It’s super good that we have Matteo up there and he’s shown that he is strong and he’s shown that again and again, and we have a super strong team, We are ready to take on the fight in the mountains,” Vingegaard told Velo.
“I feel like it’s been a GC fight every day. It’s been a hard first week, so it be curious to see what it does in the third week. It’s a really hard Tour de France this year.”