Jonas Vingegaard feels it is "a shame" to have the yellow jersey ripped off his shoulders by Tadej Pogačar but saw his glass as half full after stage 3 of the Tour de France.
The Visma-Lease a Bike rider was distanced by Pogačar's devastating sprint on the final ramp of Monday's stage, conceding two seconds on the line plus four in bonuses.
That brought the pair level on time at the top of the GC standings, but the jersey had to be handed over to his great rival by dint of Pogačar's superior combined placings on the two road stages so far.
"It's clear that I'm losing the leader's jersey, and that's a shame, of course, but on a finish like this I actually think I can be quite happy with it," Vingegaard told the Danish television channel TV2.
"We are on the same time now, and that's actually fine for us. We might have actually expected to be a little behind at this point, so it's a good starting point for us."
Stage 3 had looked set to go to a breakaway until Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates teammates took control and rode to set up a stage win. But Vingegaard's Visma-Lease a Bike also had a hand in bringing that win - and those bonus seconds - back into play, keeping the break on a short leash before UAE decided to go for it.
A breakaway win may well have denied a sprint from Pogačar and saved Vingegaard from a total time loss of six seconds, but on the other hand he doesn't have the stress, responsibility, or taxing post-stage duties that go with the yellow jersey.
"It ended up being a fairly tough stage, but I think we're getting through it well and defending ourselves well," Vingegaard added.
Vingegaard has regularly made comments like this in this early phases of recent editions of the Tour de France, which have often featured punchy stages that play into the hands of the more explosive Pogačar.
His arguments have centred on the notion that his own strengths lie more in the longer climbs of the true mountain stages, and that that's where the yellow jersey will in reality be decided.
Vingegaard has been proven right in the past but then again Pogačar also wiped the floor with him in the high mountains in the past two editions. Only time will tell in this case.
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