"We thought he didn't look great yesterday. But we were clearly wrong" - Ilan Van Wilder admits misjudgement of Jonas Vingegaard's form in stage 20
Cycling
While neither UAE Team Emirates nor Visma | Lease a Bike seemed overly interested in taking the stage 20, for Soudal - Quick-Step it was an opportunity for one last shot at Jonas Vingegaard's second spot overall. The team around Remco Evenepoel took control over the course of action to prepare a hopefully decisive strike of their leader.
However Evenepoel wasn't able to get rid of the Dane and when the Visma leader accelerated himself, the White jersey had to give in and follow his own pace in the final kilometers. With that his dream of second position is probably gone, but there's still a good chance to take another stage win in the final time trial.
Read also
Evenepoel's teammate Ilan Van Wilder was in charge of the pace until the start of Couillole. "We tried to make the race hard, to wear Vingegaard down a bit and still attack second place. We wanted to gain a few more seconds on the final climb, because we thought he didn't look great yesterday. But we were clearly wrong," Van Wilder admits to WielerFlits. "He was very good today. Certainly no regrets about our race, we did everything we wanted to do but it didn't turn out the way we had hoped. But that's no problem."
Van Wilder is regardless proud of the team's performance. "You can't forget: it was the first Tour for many riders, I'm a young rider and I don't think it's fair that we're compared to a team like UAE Emirates. They're guys who can also ride top 5 in a Grand Tour. That's not a relevant comparison."
Read also

Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
claps 1visitors 1
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- More to the point, it isn't his remaining goal.Renz08-11-2026
- lol yeahmij08-11-2026
- I know, their headlines can be so misleading. Pidcock had a great season with 5 wins. and some solid 2nds. no reason to take away from that with a fake headline.mij08-11-2026
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
Loading
Write a comment







