"It is due to a considerable weight difference between Vingegaard and Pogacar" - Visma DS explains Jonas Vingegaard's time loss in Galibier descent
CyclingThursday, 04 July 2024 at 10:29
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.
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."
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.
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- I guess so, marathon runners use it too and in sprinting a tailwind of 2m/s which is only 7,2km/h does seem to make noticeable differences, of course they’re going faster but it does seem as if any wind makes for measurable difference. Problem is, when your rival is also protected by your domestique, you’re both advantaged just as much just as long, one of the two will still need to expose themselves to make a difference.Mistermaumau27-07-2025
- They won 4 stages with 3 riders with one abandoned part way through and the other unluckily excluded several times, I would hardly call the results bad, only the obvious one-man team won more. You can’t stay on top forever, even Tadej will come back down one day.Mistermaumau27-07-2025
- I doubt that’s in the cards, not much more likely than Pog retiring, still far too ambitious, maybe you’re confusing him with Rogliç ;-)?Mistermaumau27-07-2025
- The only positive for Wout today is that MVDP is no longer there. Realistically, if he’s not achieved by now, not much speaks in his favour, he went into the Tour with a deficit from a less than optimal season and the way this Tour has been ridden certainly won’t have helped. All his attempts were pretty short-lived, I’m afraid there are just too many hungry candidates still hoping for the same as him whose legs will be more forgiving. He should start focusing on rebuilding (which includes proper rest and breaks) for a proper season.Mistermaumau27-07-2025
- PS things like Wolfpack and Skytrain are ephemeral, you are bound to fail by trying to rebuild something as “complex” that was the result of unique circumstances. Far better to set goals towards a medium to long term path can already be seen.Mistermaumau27-07-2025
- From your point of view yes, the trouble is, nobody really knows what their objectives are (even official communication is either not valid long-term as their objectives cgange faster than some rider contract durations and besides, today anything that’s said publicly can hardly be (completely) trusted, always have to read between lines and put into context. The first questions to ask and answer are, who now runs things, sportingly first because the financial side dictates that anyway. What has been discussed with the main sponsors and shareholders. Are they content with the “returns” from spring which cater to more serious fans or do they want to make noise at the Tour which provides an order of magnitude more in terms of marketing power? It’s really not difficult (multitude of strategies) for a team not winning the Tour to take their cut of media attention there with a rider(s) playing along.Mistermaumau27-07-2025
- He’s won right left and centre. Hard to imagine any team being disappointed with his last Hal dozen yearsmobk27-07-2025
- distanced Tadej lol??? there was no distance between the two.mij27-07-2025
- wout has not been particularly good this year. wondering if the Giro/Tour double is a bit much. plus he had a big early season.mij27-07-2025
- Or if Remco has one more injury or any of his common flameouts, he risks everything. He should take the money and run.mij27-07-2025
Pidcock is also explosive though so can kick well out of bends and is shorter so should have a lower cda. Having a lower cda should mean he has less aero drag on a decent. JV actually looks a better technical descender than Pog, and seemed to close the gap in more technical upper sections. Pidcock is technically better than both of them. Look at Remco he lost time on the technical section and was passed by the next group, but his cda to watts ratio meant he could catch back up on the lower less technical sections and start driving that group.
Thanks for bringing up so many factors because there are. Aero, weight, etc and NERVES.
JV had a downhill crash that did serious damage to him this spring so being cautious makes sense.