"It was very explosive. That is to his disadvantage" - Tiesj Benoot backs Jonas Vingegaard to recover time lost on stage 17 at Tour de France heads to Dane's parcours

Whilst a 12 second loss to Remco Evenepoel and a 2 second loss to Tadej Pogacar was far from perfect for Jonas Vingegaard on stage 17 of the 2024 Tour de France, it was far from a disaster either according to teammate Tiesj Benoot.

“We are trying to win the Tour, even though we know it will be very difficult this year. But we have eight strong riders here and it would be a shame to give up with the very difficult final week," explains Benoot in his post-stage interview with Sporza afterwards. "You would rather take 12 than lose 12, but it was not the best final for Jonas. We know that, it was very explosive. That is to his disadvantage, but the coming days will be different.”

Benoot himself, spent the day in the breakaway, a fact that came very much in handy when Vingegaard found himself isolated and in trouble against Evenepoel and Pogacar in the finale. "We rode really hard, even though the peloton behind us was torn apart. In that leading group of four I certainly had a chance for the stage win, but when that large group came back, I knew it was going to be difficult. Especially with Richard Carapaz and Simon Yates there, and they also flew past me on the last climb,” Benoot explains.

“After that I am happy that I was still useful for Jonas in the final, that was also the first intention to get ahead. We wanted to be able to protect Jonas well in the final," concludes the Belgian. "Especially if something like today happened. For our team it was not bad that the bonus seconds were already gone for the leading group. We try and want to race aggressively, we will continue to do that. Today it paid off more defensively, but hopefully it will turn our way again.”