"Both Jonas and Wout did really well" - Visma | Lease a Bike survive opening stage of Tour without major troubles
CyclingSunday, 30 June 2024 at 07:00
Visma | Lease a Bike had a solid opening day at the Tour de France. Jonas Vingegaard survived the first racing test without any issue, Wout Van Aert narrowly missed out on the victory behind the leading duo and thus the only downside of the day was the unnecessary crash in a downhill for Wilco Kelderman.
"I think it was a good day," sports director Merijn Zeeman tells WielerFlits. "Both Jonas and Wout did really well. That makes it a nice and good day. Wilco had to get on the bus with abrasions, which is a bit worse of course. He slipped on road dirt in a descent."
Zeeman saw two strong DSM-firmenich PostNL riders blazing to the stage victory. "Those two rode very well, so I think most viewers at home would rather have the attackers make it than have the peloton close it down. We would have preferred to win, it would have been a very nice reward for Wout after everything that happened," the sports director refers to Van Aert's injuries from Dwars doors Vlaanderen.
Beforehand, there were doubts here and there about the physical readiness of Van Aert and Vingegaard after their long rehabilitations, not least among the two riders themselves. "I am glad that today is behind us," says a relieved Zeeman about that. "You could tell that everyone was tense, including myself."
Read also
claps 1visitors 1
Just in
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
May 12, 11:09
0
Popular news
Latest comments
- The king of crashing is back! Worse still, he got only one teammate to assist him. What went wrong with Bora?
KerisVroom20-05-2025 - Media pundits trying to make a bigger story out of it than it is. Great ride by Del Toro but let's not get carried away. He didn't ride away from Ayuso. Ayuso crashed and in the heat of the dust and the chaos he found himself up ahead so he made the most of the situation. Don't buy the argument he shouldn't have pushed for pink if he wanted to win the stage. He could have backed off and not ridden with WvA but then he might have ended up without pink, without any guarantee WvA wouldn't have out sprinted him for the stage. He rode well and very strongly through a very chaotic stage and came away with a pink jersey to show for it. As for the overall GC that's a whole other story and as others have said may already look very different after tomorrow's TT. For me, still feel Del Toro has a lot to prove in terms of consistency in the mountains to be a real GC contender over the three weeks ....TBC
z2319-05-2025 - Truth be told, if Carapaz doesn't lose four minutes tomorrow he will be the guy that UAE needs to worry about. He's looking better and better.awp19-05-2025
- This is true.awp19-05-2025
- They have no other option when Tadej is racing, but when he's not, it's a free for all.
santiagobenites19-05-2025 - Del Torro was placed in the service of Ayuso during the stage where Ayuso won. It's not like he only worked for himself. What was he supposed to do on stage 9? Due to the dusty road, he thought Ayuso was at the front, but it turned out to be Egan Bernal. Was he supposed to purposely slow down and wait for Ayuso who was further behind and let Egan had a go? So, I'm not sure what's there to puzzle about.KerisVroom19-05-2025
- They (Ayuso excluded) do perform as a team when Tadej is thereKerisVroom19-05-2025
- There is nothing to be puzzled about. Its everyman for himself at UAE doing their own agendasabstractengineer19-05-2025
- Roglic crashed(out. of his own fault), had a puncture 40+km from the finish. All the big shots up front and they managed to put 1 minute into him. Chasing basically alone. UAE is pathetic without Pogacar, not a team, just a bunch of people riding in same jerseys. I think even Bernal and Carapaz can beat them. I imagine a podium with no UAE rider on it at the endLaszlo19-05-2025
- Let's all just calm down until after the TT tomorrow... If one of them have a bad day, then that's the leadership question solved... If not, then Ayuso will have to explain why IDT needs to work for him when he would not do the same for the world champ last year...DoctorNurse7119-05-2025
If wout had of won there would have being lots of raised eyebrows after 3 months off bike. But you know i have found since i have started using baking soda as a supplement going like a rocket on Zwift.🤣🤣🤣🤣
1. He hasn't been "off the bike" for three months. He has been doing monster training rides at altitude camp and elsewhere, and raced Tour of Norway and Belgian RR.
2. I notice that you didn't show up here to comment after those other races in which he did not look as sharp. Like everyone else who makes these accusations, your "argument" (such as it is) is pure confirmation bias; good performances are held up as evidence, but poor performances are ignored.