"The riders in his wheel benefited from his work" - Visma DS on Jonas Vingegaard's first mountainous race of 2025

Team Visma | Lease a Bike came to the Volta ao Algarve with the likes of Sepp Kuss, Wilco Kelderman and Wout van Aert backing up Jonas Vingegaard, but on the summit finish to the Alto da Fóia neither were able to play a key role. The Dane wasn't able to execute his tactics as hoped, and the team DS laments that Visma was put under such pressure on the final ascent.

The run-up to the penultimate climb was furious and left the peloton blown to pieces. Visma had a mishap with van Aert, but Sepp Kuss' absence from the front group as the peloton thinned down was evident. Wilco Kelderman was present but struggling with the pace, whilst Ben Tulett followed the winning move of the Jan Christen group but later cracked and couldn't contribute to the chase of the leading group.

This left Visma with no-one to assist Jonas Vingegaard in the case, with a large gap to the group where Christen would eventually ride away to victory. Vingegaard, doing his first in-race climbing effort since August, attacked the GC group with 1.5 kilometers to go, but with no-one collaborating, he had to keep the pace high himself.

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This work eventually favoured João Almeida who had a teammate in the front group, and was able to follow Vingegaard until he decided to launch his own attack and gain 10 seconds on the road - plus 6 seconds in bonifications - over the final 500 meters. This is a gap that can decide the race.

“Tactically, we raced well today. Ben [Tulett] was in the attack on the final climb, but unfortunately, he had to let go," DS Arthur van Dongen said in a press release issued by the team. "Vingegaard then put in a big effort at the front of the favorites’ group and almost single-handedly closed the thirty-second gap".

"In the end, the riders in his wheel benefited from his work, which is who cycling works," he accepts. Over the coming flat days it's hard to imagine there will be differences to be created, and the GC will be decided in the 19-kilometer time-trial that ends atop the Alto do Malhão.

Vingegaard sits 16 seconds behind João Almeida, 20 behind Jan Christen and only 3 ahead of Primoz Roglic who continues to be a big danger. "We’re looking ahead to the coming days—everything is still possible in the fight for the overall victory," van Dongen concluded. 

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