04/07/2024

"It is due to a considerable weight difference between Vingegaard and Pogacar" - Visma DS explains Jonas Vingegaard's time loss in Galibier descent

Dust settled and after four stages into Tour de France, Jonas Vingegaard is looking at Tadej Pogacar's bib numbers from a distance of 50 seconds. But as we have witnessed it in the past, we should only count the eggs in our basket after the time trial in Nice as only there the overall standings will be definitive.

The Dane was only some eight seconds behind his Slovenian counterpart on top of Col du Galibier, however he lost another 30 seconds in the subsequent descent to Valloire. Visma | Lease a Bike sports director Arthur van Dongen explains why that happened in an interview with WielerFlits.

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Van Dongen believes Vingegaard wasn't lacking in terms of technical skills or risk-taking. Apparently the answer is much simpler than that. "It is due to a considerable weight difference between Vingegaard and Pogacar," he says. Pogacar is listed at 66kg while Vingegaard only 60kg. Were the few extra kilograms the sole reason for Vingegaard to lose a considerable amount of time?

There's more to it, the Visma DS realizes. "Pogacar is also just a bit more explosive. After a sharp hairpin bend, he can immediately, boom, accelerate at full speed. Mathieu van der Poel can do that too. Vingegaard loses out there. It's as simple as that."

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Despite the time loss and a provisional third place in the general classification, the team continues to radiate confidence. They are not shocked by the time loss. Main sports director team leader Grischa Niermann hinted that they expected even bigger difference.

The first mountain stage confirmed what many already thought. UAE Team Emirates is by far the strongest lineup (not only) in the mountains at the moment. Not even by the riders of Visma | Lease a Bike, who were able to control the previous editions can't do much about this dominance.

On the flanks of the Galibier, the consequences of multiple setbacks throughout this season accumulated and Vingegaard was quickly isolated against the strong UAE. The biggest loss is the absence of Vuelta winner Sepp Kuss who couldn't start after he fell ill just ahead of the Grand Départ. "Sepp had always ridden with those last eight riders. We miss him of course. And he is irreplaceable," according to Van Dongen.