Jonas Vingegaard has responded to Remco Evenepoel’s accusations that he didn’t have ‘the balls to race’ throughout Sunday’s gravel stage on the Tour de France, saying with a smile that he was targeted on ‘using sensible.’
Vingegaard and his Visma-Lease a Bike group rode defensively by the stage over the 14 gravel sectors close to Troyes in central France, eager to restrict the chance of dropping time or going mano-a-mano along with his largest Tour rivals, particularly Tadej Pogačar.
On the gravel roads, Pogačar and Evenepoel tried completely different assaults. Vingegaard was capable of reply however by no means labored with them to distance different GC riders.
Evenepoel surged away with 77 km to go on the gravel of the fourth-category Côte de Chacenay. Pogačar and Vingegaard joined him however the Dane refused to work.
With 20 km to race, Vingegaard caught Pogačar due to some excellent work by teammate Matteo Jorgenson. Evenepoel and Primož Roglič have been distanced however once more Vingegaard refused to work.
“Tadej and I weren’t completely happy as a result of possibly the entire Tour might have been determined,” Evenepoel mentioned of the long-range assault.
“We’ve got to just accept race ways and race conditions, however generally you additionally want the balls to race, and sadly possibly Jonas did not have them.”
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Vingegaard was anticipating the query in the course of the Visma-Lease a Bike press convention on the remainder day close to Orleans south of Paris and hit again at Evenepoel, who usually races aggressively fairly than sensible and defensively.
“We have been primarily targeted on not dropping time,” Vingegaard mentioned.
“If I had gone with these two and so they had left me behind on that sector the place I needed to let Pogačar journey a bit later, I’d have misplaced the Tour yesterday. It wasn’t an absence of “balls”, I simply rode sensible.”
Vingegaard suffered a punctured lung, damaged collarbone and a number of other damaged ribs in his severe accidents within the Itzulia Basque Nation crash in early April and has claimed he has solely skilled critically for six weeks.
He has been making an attempt to restrict his time losses, particularly to Pogačar, within the first week of the Tour, within the hope he can discover his finest type for the ultimate week, maybe when the Slovenian is fading.
Vingegaard misplaced 50 seconds on the stage to Valloire and an extra 25 seconds within the Cote d’Or time trial. He’s now 1:15 down on Pogačar within the GC standings, with Evenepoel between them at 33 seconds and Primož Roglič (Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) fourth total at 1:36.
“I really feel like I’m rising,” mentioned Vingegaard, maybe enjoying thoughts video games along with his rivals and himself.
“I’m getting higher and higher. I’m at a excessive degree, a lot increased than I ever anticipated with only a month and a half of preparation.”
Vingegaard described the opening 9 phases as a ‘comparatively straightforward opening week’ however stays cautious about how a lot time he can afford to lose and maybe nonetheless win the Tour de France, even perhaps within the ultimate time trial to Good.
“I can not put a quantity on that. Final 12 months I took seven minutes in two days. Now we do not understand how I’ll react within the third week. We’ll see day-to-day,” he mentioned,
“In fact, the nearer I’m, the higher. However I trusted our plan final 12 months. That labored. I belief the plan this 12 months too. If I win, that is good. In any other case, life simply goes on. That crash modified so much in that respect.”
Pogačar appears obsessive about gaining time on Vingegaard at any time when he can however the Dane is on the lookout for allies to assist him management Pogačar’s aggression.
“No, I do not see Pogačar as my solely rival. I am cautious of the complete prime 10, possibly much more riders,” he instructed.
“It is also to my benefit that there are a number of rivals. Then we can assist one another to make it a tough race.”
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