Simply 87 days have elapsed since defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard crashed and suffered a collapsed lung and damaged ribs and a fractured collarbone. Solely 54 days in the past, he rode outdoors for the primary time since that crash, and competing for a 3rd Tour de France title appeared out of the query.
Even earlier than the beginning of the Tour de France, Vingegaard stated he was joyful to only be within the race, however on stage 2, his exceptional comeback bought much more spectacular when he had no issues following a searing assault by Tadej Pogačar on the double-digit gradients of the Côte de San Luca.
Whereas Pogačar moved into the yellow jersey of race chief, Vingegaard is scorching on his heels in third on the identical time together with Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) and Richard Carapaz (EF Training-EasyPost). All of them gained 21 seconds over the remaining Tour de France contenders like Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe).
“I feel this went means higher than I ever anticipated, so I am actually glad,” Vingegaard stated to NBC after the stage.
“That I used to be capable of observe Tadej on the second climb of San Luca … I feel that is in all probability one of many levels we feared essentially the most, or we truly anticipated me to lose time.
“Truthfully talking I did not have an excellent preparation for this race. I solely had one and a half months to arrange, in all probability, so I feel I could be tremendous pleased with with how the whole lot goes to date.
“I knew already earlier than my crash that the stage as we speak possibly suited him higher than it suited me, and particularly after my crash, I used to be much more behind. No less than I can say now that if I am not again at the very least I am tremendous, tremendous shut.”
There have been just a few phrases between the 2 after the preliminary assault, when Vingegaard would not pull by means of. He defined, “he needed me to tug on the kicker there however I waited till the highest of that one as a result of in any other case I knew he’d assault me once more. After which from that second, I began working with him and tried to get a while on all the opposite rivals.”
Vingegaard’s efficiency considerably put to mattress who’s the chief of the group, with Paris-Good winner Matteo Jorgenson ending 21 seconds down after taking a tumble in the course of the stage.
“We all know we who’s the chief. With Jonas, now we have a double winner of the Tour,” Merijn Zeeman stated to NBC. “So everyone seems to be working for him.”
Jorgenson crashed along with Wout van Aert due to a gap within the highway, Zeeman stated, however each had been comparatively unscathed.
“Once I heard I used to be, in fact, involved about it,” Vingegaard stated. “Fortunately, they did not harm themselves. It is solely scratches as I hear it. I feel that is fortunate, as a result of that is two tremendous, vital helpers and teammates for me.”