"I still believe in myself and my plan" - Rocky time-trial shakes Jonas Vingegaard but doesn't take him out

Jonas Vingegaard looked very strong in the Criterium du Dauphiné's time-trial and entered today's stage with high expectations and even the possibility of taking time on Tadej Pogacar. Ultimately, the two-time winner of the Tour de France was perhaps the defeated face of the day, shedding over a minute to his main rival after a bad day on the bike.

"I just didn't have the legs. I'm losing a bit of time, but my legs didn't feel good," Vingegaard admitted in a post-race interview. "So the result reflects the feeling in my legs. I was fighting my legs and my bike. I was surprised by my legs, but sometimes that's part of cycling."

Bad days are relatively inevitable for riders over the course of an entire Grand Tour, but this was a particularly bad day for the feeling to take over the leader of Team Visma | Lease a Bike. From the first kilometers of the time-trial it already looked evident that there would be a time loss, but everytime he crossed an intermediate point, the clock would bring bad news to the Dutch team that also had Matteo Jorgenson with a modest time when comparing to his Dauphiné performance.

This shouldn't affect the team's performance in the coming days or be a bad sign, however it puts the team in a position of pressure to already take time on UAE and Pogacar and creating a clear order where UAE can race conservatively and leave Visma to do the work.

As for time gaps, there is now 1:13 separating Vingegaard from Pogacar, and only a fourth place in the overall classification. "Luckily, the Tour is still long. I still believe in myself and my plan; I still believe we can win," he assured however.

"Look, the difference is around a minute now. That seems like a lot at first glance, but we know from recent years that the Tour has been won with more than that.”