"It's a strong signal sent by the Danish rider" - Cedric Vasseur favors Jonas Vingegaard for Tour triumph after dominant stage win

Wednesday's Tour de France stage in Central Massif will be the one to forget at Cofidis. While Guillaume Martin fought for a stage success to a little effect in the breakaway, his teammates Ion Izagirre and Alexis Renard had to abandon the Grand Boucle due to illness at the early parts of the stage.

"Ion had been suffering for a few days and Alexis didn't feel well this morning, it's the Tour de France, finishing in 8th place is good but it's not the end goal, the main thing is to try to win a stage," team manager Cédric Vasseur told Cyclism'Actu afterwards.

Vasseur looked back on the day and the start of his team's Tour: "A difficult stage for everyone when you see the standings today, 1 Vingegaard and 2 Pogacar, you say to yourself that in the end, there was not much point in going into the breakaways. Axel was good, he tried his luck at the start of the stage, Guillaume too, Jesus is waiting for his day, just one day and one breakaway are enough to make us forget this rather gloomy start to the Tour de France."

The Cofidis manager also talked about the battle for the yellow jersey, and according to him, Jonas Vingegaard will do the triple: "A prediction? Vingegaard. The two are almost at the same level, I think that Vingegaard's victory gives him a psychological advantage because it was still Pogacar who made the race tougher. It's a strong signal sent by the Danish rider. I think that in the third week, he risks being fresher than a Pogacar who comes out of the Giro."