The highly anticipated gravel stage of the 2024 Tour de France more than lived up to the expectations on Sunday as an all-time great Tour de France stage was delivered. In the end however, there was no real GC shakeup as had been predicted.
A big reason for this was the lack of desire by Jonas Vingegaard to work with Remco Evenepoel and Tadej Pogacar when the three of them found themselves out ahead of the peloton. Whilst the podium of the 2024 Tour de France could potentially have been decided there, the Team Visma | Lease a Bike opted against riding with his rivals, both of whom are much more accustomed to long range raids from their respective one day race escapades. A perfectly logical tactic from Vingegaard, although not all agreed with the two time Tour de France winner.
Former commentator Maarten Ducrot wrote on his X (Twitter) account; "If it looks like a wheel sucker, it rides like one and it acts like a wheel sucker, then it is a wheel sucker. Signed, Jonas Vingegaard," with Remco Evenepoel even going so far as to claim that Vingegaard lacked the balls to ride with himself and Pogacar.
The vastly experienced Sporza expert Jose de Cauwer has seen a lot over the years and was watching this latest stage of the Tour de France very closely. "Jonas Vingegaard was saved by the gong, by his own teammates. By Christophe Laporte, by Matteo Jorgenson, by Jan Tratnik's bike," the Belgian begins his assessment post-stage 9. "You felt Vingegaard wanted people around him today. Which is his right. But you could also say as a sportsman, as a two-time Tour winner: allez, come on! Dare! To his credit, he stuck to his tactics. He could also have run on a counter, because he was not the better one on the road."
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