"Very, very relieved not to lose time" - Jonas Vingegaard safely navigates gravel drama at 2024 Tour de France

Jonas Vingegaard was on the back foot for much of stage 9 at the 2024 Tour de France, but on the dangerous gravel, the Dane defended bravely, responding to multiple attacks from the likes of Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel to survive the day without any further time loss.

An already tough day was made even more difficult for the Team Visma | Lease a Bike as a mid stage mechanical forced Vingegaard to ride around 90km of the stage on the bike of his teammate, as the relentlessly high pace of the made it impossible to stop for a moment and wait for the team car, where Vingegaard's replacement bikes were waiting.

"I am of course very, very relieved that I made it safely to the finish without losing any time," assesses the two time Tour de France winner in a post-stage interview with ITV Sport. "I had two punctures! One when I went on the bike of Jan Tratnik and then actually, I also had a puncture in the last 3 kilometres. Only like, half a puncture but I could still feel it on the bike. I think I owe all my teammates a big, big thank you, they did super well today!"

"Jan gave me the bike and it was a perfect fit. Then the rest of the guys kept at the front the whole time. I entered every sector in first position and they even closed the gap for me the one time I couldn't follow," Vingegaard recalls. "I owe them big time after today!"