"There are teammates who want to give a high five, but he's on the phone" - Zonneveld argues against Jonas Vingegaard's post-race habit

Jonas Vingegaard rode to victory on stage 7 of the Giro d'Italia, his first time winning in the Corsa Rosa. It was a strong performance, not dominant however as Felix Gall came slightly close to the Dane. His pacing strategy and a phone call right after the finish line were worthy of commentary following the finish.

After the stage had ended, Vingegaard crossing the line on Blockhaus first, the Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider quickly got on a phone call - presumably with his wife Trine. For Thijs Zonneveld, this was not the best timing for such action, something that has also happened in the past.

"Why? Just don't do that fifteen seconds after you've come in. It's a kind of tic. It just doesn't come across well," Zonneveld argued on the In de Waaier podcast. "It's kind of lame, but we read that interview with Trine last year before the Tour de France (he refers to the comments that Visma often demand too much of the Dane, and that he should be given full leadership and focus due to them in his big goals, ed.)".

"There are teammates who want to give a high five, but he's on the phone. To each their own, but I just can't get used to it," the Dutch pundit argued.

However performance wise, the Dane delivered, as was expected, on the first summit finish of the race. "It was just businesslike. Mission accomplished for him. I think they would have liked a bit more of a lead over Gall, but they are very satisfied with the rest of the differences".

The 13 seconds at the finish line were a modest gap to the Austrian, but he did win almost a minute to the following competitors, which included Giulio Pellizzari - who tried following Vingegaard initially, only to crack higher up the mountains. However Zonneveld doesn't believe the team will be worried about the Decathlon CMA CGM Team rider.

"Only Gall was just really good. He paced himself brilliantly and even caught up with Vingegaard towards the end. Gall is going to lose three minutes in the time trial, but he is just as vulnerable in other areas. They aren't too worried about that".

"I wouldn’t get too exited seeing Gal so close to Jonas. Visma raced the first mountain stage extremely aggressively with an undertrained Jonas;" former pro Tom Danielson argued on X. "I don’t think his threshold and VO2 zones are super sharp and defined and likely the savage Visma climbing pace took more glycogen out of his legs than expected".

The American believes that the changes in Vingegaard's pace, mostly from his attacks against Giulio Pellizzari, took him closer to the limit early on which then cost him - specially with the strong wind throwing in an extra variable onto the GC contenders.

"They actually showed Jonas’s power and he was jumping between 330w and 400w in the final. Meanwhile Gall paced the climb perfectly staying within his zones, using a high cadence, and ended up close in the end," the American argued. He believes that Vingegaard's level is to improve soon: "But I think Jonas will race into sharpness in these zones and start to increase the gaps to others as we go".