Tour de France: Vingegaard is satisfied with his show

Jonas Vingegaard sprints in third place on the third stage of the Tour de France. On a terrain that does not actually like it. This also sends a signal to the top favorite Tadej Pogacar.

Jonas Vingegaard just struggled out of his legs that had accumulated plenty of accumulated in the final of the 2nd stage of the Tour de France, when his teammate Matteo Jorgenson approached him. “You are still becoming a sprinter,” the American smeared. Vingegaard knocked on the right thigh laughed and answered. “I’m working on it!”

Of course, the slim vingegaard will no longer be a sprinter, because they are completely different caliber. But that is exactly why the two -time tour winner had every reason to be satisfied with his day’s work. He ended the final print on the rising home stretch in Boulogne-sur-Mer as third, behind the winner Mathieu van der Poel and his sharpest rival in the fight for overall victory, Tadej Pogacar.

“I’ve never been third in such a sprint,” said Vingegaard when he ended his unit on the role in front of the team bus. “To land behind the two best drivers on this terrain. I can be satisfied with my show.”

France’s north is not Vingegaards Terrain

In fact, the terrain in northern France does not have the climber. The profile of the 2nd stage would also have suited a spring classic. The weather with pouring rain at the beginning and wind too. Three toxic, short but very steep climbs have been installed on the last 30 kilometers of the tour of the tour of the tour of 209 kilometers with 209 kilometers.

There van der Poel, who has won the Flanders Tour and Paris Roubaix three times, and Pogacar, who has also been victorious in Flanders, rather than Vingegaard. The Dane is more of a large arc around the one -day races in spring. But now he doesn’t get around the tour.

“There is always a lot of hectic when you start with such stages,” said Vingegaard. “Personally, like the last two editions of the tour, I prefer it if it is really difficult away from the start.” Therefore, it was agreed that Pogacar was able to secure one or two seconds in the expected duel for the touring victory.

Deficit from the Dauphiné seems to be eliminated

That will probably not happen after the first impression. Vingegaard obviously worked on his punch, which is crucial for such sections. “It was an explosive stage and Jonas managed very well. So we hope that the shape and its explosiveness are better than the Dauphiné,” said the sporting director of the Visma Lease A Bike, Grischa Niermann.

During the Dauphiné tour, an important preparatory race before the tour, Vingegaard had been significantly inferior to his main competitor in this regard. But this deficit seems to be eliminated. The first week of the France Tour also has some such classic stages to offer in which Vingegaard has to confirm the impression.

The issue for Pogacar

But Vingegaard not only sprinted in Boulogne-sur-Mer almost at the same level as van der Poel and Vingegaard, but also became active shortly before the end. Five kilometers before the finish, he attacked a crest into a departure. The attack led to nothing, but since the Tour de France is always a mental game, in which one wants to sit down in the head of the competitors, the attack sent another signal to Pogacar: I can also expect these stages.

For this, the team provided him with a team that is very strongly geared towards this first complicated week. Already on the first stage, this had emerged when the team, led by Vingegaard, provoked a division of the field on the wind edge, which included the victims of the previous year Remco Evenepoel and the German Equipe Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.

Roglic is missing the punch from the past

On the second day, you could take account of the fact that this time, unlike on the first stage, you were almost continuously in the picture. They only lost the connection once only once, but could quickly close the hole again. In the final, Florian Lipowitz also sent a signal with a courageous attack two kilometers before the finish.

Lipowitz and his captain Primoz Roglic reached the finish line at the same time as the trio. In the past, Roglic would also have intervened in the final sprint. But at the age of almost 36, the Slovenian of the punch apparently lost a little. Unlike Vingegaard, who has just discovered it.