🇫🇷 #TDF2023 How it stands after the opening weekend. ⤵️
Jonas Vingegaard: "I already did something for Wout. I could have thought of myself and rolled with Pogacar"
CyclingMonday, 03 July 2023 at 11:05
The tactics of Jumbo-Visma through the opening weekend of the Tour de France was perhaps the greatest topic of discussion, a lot of it revolving around how Jonas Vingegaard should have raced. Many different and vocal opinions have emerged, but the defending champion has explained his tactics.
"I think I already did something for Wout. I could have thought of myself and rolled with Pogacar. So in a way, I helped by not relaying Pogacar," Vingegaard told AD. "From my side, I just have to focus on the general classification. Of course, we have different objectives and we are all disappointed, so am I, we really wanted Wout to win today."
The second day of racing saw once again Jumbo on the backfoot and chasing down late attacks. Unlike stage 1 however, the run-in to San Sebastián was not as hard and saw a larger group head into the finish, where Tiesj Benoot and Wilco Kelderman worked to bring back a few attacks in the final kilometers, with Wout van Aert himself responding to moves from Tom Pidcock and Mattias Skjelmose. This was all after Tadej Pogacar attacked on the Jaizkibel, a move that was shut down as Jonas Vingegaard did not want to collaborate.
The Dane believes that even if indirectly, his lack of collaboration for Pogacar was already an important support step for Wout van Aert's chances of winning the stage. Criticism surged over him not having ridden for van Aert in the finale, where the Belgian came up very short of the stage win as the team couldn't bring back the late move from Victor Lafay. This sees Jumbo-Visma under a bit of pressure as van Aert chases his stage win, and the team has been burning resources without success for that purpose.
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- happy holidays.OCexile17-12-2024
- Nonsense Mistermaumau. Tom has noticeably more character and personality than Mathieu. Look at the photograph with this article - when was the last time you saw Mathieu crack a smile like that?RupertBear17-12-2024
- Get over yourself! Tom is fine, he's quite a character in his way - he's got a great sense of humour for a start. Watch him and Matt Stephens do one of their cafe rides, they're both a hoot. I don't mind Mathieu, but he's a bit of a cold fish in case you haven't noticed. You guys make me laugh, you get a unique rider like Tom appears on the scene and all you can do is bitch! By the way Senna, your use of a comma and then the lack of a space between words is usually an indicator of ASD. Now I'm being bitchy!RupertBear17-12-2024
- Whining isn’t a good look, Lance. Oh and doping or not, the GOAT is still Eddy Merckx imho - lance couldn’t t even come close when you compare resultsCrashjames16-12-2024
- * not taking anything away from the tireless sacrifices wout has made as a superstar. those are two extraordinary individuals.OCexile16-12-2024
- sadly true. mathieu is the bedrock AD was built on, and he’s always shouldered that role and always seen the bigger picture: took MUCH less money than he could have gotten while the team was growing, and has written them new book on what it means to be a completely selfless superstar, witness every ferocious leadout for jasper and what he did at MSR last year. yup, so far that’s not thomas.OCexile16-12-2024
- ...you could also add diminuer,etiquette,basic PR skills and respect all of which Pidcock lacks in abundance.Senna196016-12-2024
- Just like Remco should have ;-)Mistermaumau16-12-2024
- And you base that on which vast amount of knowledge you have on him please?Mistermaumau16-12-2024
- Not only that but what MVDP did at AD had a lot to do with a personality that TP will never have.Mistermaumau16-12-2024