Jonas Vingegaard has defined that his lack of curiosity in collaborating with Tadej Pogačar throughout the Tour de France gravel stage 9 on Sunday, when the 2 managed to drop the remainder of the GC rivals, was primarily based on a group technique of at all times remaining together with his teammates for so long as attainable.
On a day when Pogačar went on the rampage on a number of events, repeatedly stringing out the sector, and attempting to drop his rivals, Vingegaard recognised to reporters that it could have been ultimate for him, too, to collaborate with Pogačar to take extra time on their joint rivals Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Primož Roglič (Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
Each Evenepoel and Roglič had been distanced when Vingegaard bridged throughout – with some help from Matteo Jorgenson and Christophe Laporte – to one in every of Pogačar’s most ferocious assaults. On different events, it was simply Roglič who was dropped.
However regardless of the mix of riders forward, one factor stayed fixed: Vingegaard was by no means prepared to assist Pogačar, opting as an alternative to attempt to defuse any try to blow the race aside.
“He was using so quick himself, we didn’t give it some thought,” Vingegaard advised reporters later. “However in all types of conditions, we thought it was higher for us to have extra teammates in case one thing occurred.”
“So, in fact, indirectly, it could have been higher to journey as a result of Primož and Remco weren’t there. However however, our objective was to not lose time, so perhaps it was higher to attend.”
Vingegaard’s extra cautious strategy was maybe justified by his rollercoaster experiences on the gravel roads round Troyes. Not solely did he need to spend practically 100 kilometres on a teammate’s bike and deal with a continuous avalanche of Pogačar assaults, Vingegaard additionally had two punctures within the stage, which doubtless acted as additional reminders of the knowledge of not being overly remoted, as might have occurred had he labored with the Slovenian.
“I’m, in fact, very relieved that I made it safely to the end with out dropping any time and solely two punctures,” Vingegaard stated in what gave the impression to be a humorous reference to his a number of mishaps.
“I had one after I received onto Jan’s bike, and really, it occurred once more within the final three kilometres. That was solely half a puncture, however I might nonetheless end on the identical bike.
“So I owe all my teammates an enormous huge thanks, they usually did tremendous nicely in the present day. Jan gave me the bike; it was an ideal match, and the remainder of the blokes stored me within the entrance. I entered each sector in first place they usually even closed the hole for me one time after I couldn’t comply with. So, I owe them huge time after one.”
The dependence on Jorgenson and Laporte to deliver him again as much as Pogačar some 30 kilometres from the road most likely made it much more unlikely for Visma to vary their minds about how dangerous it could be to work with the Slovenian. However as Vingegaard defined, too, their presence helped compensate for one main chink in his armour when it got here to racing over gravel: his weight, in comparison with that of his arch-rival.
Requested who was the strongest on the gravel, Vingegaard – whom Vingegaard implied was extra evenly constructed – stated unhesitatingly, “Tadej was. [But] additionally it [the gravel] favours him additionally greater than favours me, specifically when the gravel was looser.”
“For a man of my weight, it’s [looser gravel] isn’t beneficial, and that was additionally when he received a small hole on me; it was most likely the worst sector of all. It was so unfastened that I used to be simply sliding round, to be sincere. It was actually onerous for me to regulate the bike.”
But for all Vingegaard underlined his opposition to the inclusion of gravel phases on Grand Excursions, branding them as ‘pointless’, and for all it had clearly been a really fraught day of racing, he reached the group bus wanting relaxed and with a smile on his face, one reporter identified.
“I feel perhaps after the crash,” – in Itzulia Basque Nation in April, the place he was badly injured he couldn’t race till the Tour de France – “ I realised what life was about,” VIngegaard defined, “And it’s extra about household and residing life fairly than biking, so perhaps in that approach I really feel much less stress, and I get pleasure from it extra.”
Get limitless entry to all of our protection of the Tour de France – together with breaking information and evaluation reported by our journalists on the bottom from each stage of the race because it occurs and extra. Discover out extra