In the wake of the early GC skirmish on the slopes of San Luca in Bologna, Visma-Lease a Bike were left ecstatic with the resurgent display of Jonas Vingegaard as he went toe to toe with Tadej Pogačar for the first time at this year’s Tour de France.
The Slovenian pulled on the yellow jersey at the end of stage two, but the day undoubtedly belonged to Vingegaard after he impressively followed every violent acceleration from Pogačar on the steep final climb.
Pogačar lost yellow to Richard Caparaz (EF Education-EasyPost) on stage three on count back, and the GC battle will resume on stage four when the riders enter the high mountains for the first time at this year’s race. The fearsome Col du Galibier features at the tail end of the 139km ride into the Alps before a long and fast descent into Valloire.
After witnessing Vingegaard’s stoic display on San Luca, Visma-Lease a Bike’s sports director, Merijn Zeeman believes the Galibier will provide another answer as to whether Vingegaard can indeed last the distance and challenge Pogačar for victory in Nice in three weeks time.
Speaking to Cycling Weekly in Piacenza before stage three, won by Biniam Girmay in Turin, Zeeman said: "I think it will be super fast on the Galibier. Then it’s not so much down to tactics for us, it’s just to try to follow and see who will be first on top and if a small group forms before the descent to Valloire.
"Yesterday was above expectations, so hopefully we can see more in the high mountains. Tomorrow we will get another answer on Jonas’ shape I would say."
Primož Roglič was one of several GC riders to suffer an early time loss on the second stage. Zeeman said that he expects further time losses as the race reaches high altitude.
"There’s always on the first mountain stage some GC guys cracking," he added. "Maybe they can come back in the last week, but tomorrow there will be hard racing. All the guys need to deliver, but I'm sure some of the guys will have a very hard day.
"It's been a strange start to the Tour. Now what we had this weekend with the heat then Valloire will be much colder, with far longer efforts as well."
Before the Tour began, Pogačar said he had suffered a late setback due to a last minute Covid infection. However, the UAE Emirates rider’s setback was minor compared to Vingegaard’s injuries sustained in the spring in his terrible crash at Itzulia Basque Country. The Dane suffered a punctured lung, broken collarbone and several broken ribs and spent weeks in rehabilitation with the aim of making it to the Tour.
After being named in the Visma-Lease a Bike line-up, Vingegaard’s ability to challenge at this year’s race was questioned by many. But the defending champion silenced plenty of doubters with stage two’s resilient display.
Vingegaard said post-stage that he had surprised himself on a stage that he feared, and Zeeman shared the same emotions after the Dane’s lengthy layoff from competition. The Grand Départ in Florence was the Dane’s first competitive race day since Itzulia.
Zeeman said: "It gave a huge boost to the team. If you can see him performing well it makes everyone very happy. We have very very good coaches. I think Tim Heemskerk, his performance coach, did a super super job.
"Of course it's the commitment of Jonas and that he put everything to one side to be here so he deserves the most credit. But I think Tim, Martijn Redegeld [team nutritionist], Mathieu Heijboer [head of performance] and all the guys that did the rehab with him deserve a lot of credit as they did a fantastic job.
"It gives the team a lot of confidence. It was a huge boost for us and Jonas."
