"I was mistaken about Jonas" - Dutch pundits surprised about Visma leader's dominating form at Paris-Nice

Paris-Nice wasn't a race that was on Jonas Vingegaard's initial schedule and is also one that lacks the long mountain stages where the Dane usually thrives in. However, he has been dominating the overall classification now with two consecutive stage wins, which is a very convincing first shot ahead of an important summer of racing.

The competition at the French race is not the world-class field that the Dane was expected to face, with the ill João Almeida and Mattias Skjelmose missing out on the race; whilst former race leader Juan Ayuso crashed out.

However, any doubts that Vingegaard's form was modest have been cleared this Thursday afternoon as in the run-up to Colombier-le-Vieux, the Dane did not sit back and play it safe despite the comfortable position he had in the overall classification already.

Vingegaard attacked with three climbs to go, after Team Visma | Lease a Bike set up an attack for him. The climbs were not long, but were difficult enough for him to make the difference. In Tadej Pogacar's style, the Dane went on to take a dominant solo win with a long-range attack - perhaps preparing for the type of racing he is expected to have during the Tour de France.

“Five hundred meters before Vingegaard makes his move, you can already see that Martinez is clearly not the runner-up of Paris-Nice,” Thomas Dekker said in the Live Slow Ride Fast podcast.

The former pro had Tadej Pogacar in mind when he saw the Visma rider make the move. “But then I thought: ‘Now you actually just have to do something that Pogacar sometimes does 40 to 50 kilometers in advance. And that is to attack.’ And fortunately, he did.”

With Remco Evenepoel also winning in such way back in January and Paul Seixas succeeding in a similar prowess at the Faun-Ardèche Classic; this sort of attack seems to become a new norm. The top riders now frequently deploy such tactics in smaller races so as to be prepared for the tactics of Tadej Pogacar during the top races in the calendar.

Dekker brought up the World Champion in the conversation again, signalling what he still believes to be Vingegaard's advantages in the Grand Tours. The two are only expected to face off at the Tour de France this year, at least before the fall.

“Vingegaard is naturally always relatively better than Pogi in such a third week. I also think that because he is a more boring person, he can maintain that focus a bit longer".

Laurens Ten Dam, a rider who has often been part of the French race and knows what it can bring to the riders in terms of terrain and weather, did not expect to see Vingegaard ride with such intensity and success, taking into consideration the race's charachteristics and how he doesn't always perform so well in his first race of the year.

“I have to say that I was mistaken about Jonas," Ten Dam admits. "I didn't think he was this good already. Especially after that stupid crash in training and after his trainer left," referring to the fall in early February that was part of the reason why he removed the UAE Tour from his schedule.