Jonas Vingegaard 'satisfied' with his time-trial performance at Tirreno-Adriatico: "Still many stages to come where a lot can happen"

Although perhaps not at his best time-trialling level, Jonas Vingegaard was competitive on the opening stage of Tirreno-Adriatico 2024, finishing the day in 9th, 22 seconds down on Juan Ayuso.

"I am quite satisfied with the time trial I rode today," the Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader reflected to his team's official website afterwards. "The feeling was already good. There are still many stages to come where a lot can happen. I'm really looking forward to that."

"We knew the course would not be ideal for Jonas. On a flat and short course like this, he was therefore not able to use his strengths optimally," assesses Team Visma | Lease a Bike sports director, Grischa Niermann. "In hindsight, a place in the top ten is a fine result. We had calculated a smaller gap to Juan Ayuso beforehand, but Jonas proved the second fastest classification rider. He's still in a good position in view of what lies ahead in the next few days."

Notable of the Visma riders' performance on the day was their eye-catching new time-trial helmets. "We tested the helmet extensively last winter. We did this using prototypes and position scans of several riders, including Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert, among others," Mathieu Heijboer clarified. "The riders did look up a bit when they first saw the helmet, but in the end that didn't last long. After a few tests and seeing the gains, everyone was quickly convinced."