As the Tour de France approaches, Jonas Vingegaard’s victory and his squad’s near-faultless performance in the Critérium du Dauphiné has logically provided a significant boost of confidence in the Jumbo-Visma camp regarding his chances for a repeat success this July.
Hugely prestigious in its own right, the Dauphiné is also traditionally considered the toughest preparation race for the Tour. And collectively all last week Jumbo-Visma were clearly on top of their game, leading the race for seven stages out of a possible eight and winning half the stages, two with Christophe Laporte - who also took home the points jersey - and two with Vingegaard.
Perhaps most impressively of all, Vingegaard’s winning margin of 2:23 over Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) was the biggest in 36 years in the Criterium du Dauphiné, when in 1987 Charly Mottet finished second in a mid-week time trial to open up a huge gap on his nearest rival, Henry Cardenas of Colombia and finally win by 2:44.
Like Mottet, Vingegaard was second in the 2023 Dauphiné time trial, on this occasion behind Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates). But whereas in 1987, Cardenas bounced back in the mountains at Val Frejus to take a stage win and regain some time on his French rival, Vingegaard went from strength to strength on the climbs, racking up two more wins, including the summit finish at the Croix de Fer and a second place on the last day at Grenoble.
"It’s true, this win sends a sort of message,” Merijn Zeeman, Jumbo-Visma sports director, told L’Équipe, “there was a very strong field here, but everybody knows that [Tadej] Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) is at another level.”
“I would have been more worried if Jonas hadn’t been able to beat his rivals here, because that would have meant he wouldn’t have been able to beat Pogačar.”
“These two guys [Pogačar and Vingegaard] are so strong that they seem like they’re on another level, as we’ve seen this week.”
While Vingegaard promised that he still had room for improvement, Zeeman stated categorically that “he can be, and he’ll need to be to win the Tour. We knew that, and the Dauphiné forms part of his preparation.”
Tiesj Benoot, cited by Vingegaard as a key climber in the Dauphiné, was equally upbeat, telling L’Equipe that he didn’t know if Pogačar was following the race, but “he must have seen the information.”
Benoot also pointed out that some of the team’s best climbers were not present in the Dauphiné but would further strengthen the Jumbo-Visma Tour de France line-up. While Stephen Kruijswijk is out for the count after crashing and fracturing his pelvis and collarbone early last week in the Dauphiné - the one big downside for Jumbo-Visma in the race - Wilco Kelderman, Sepp Kuss and Wout van Aert are all on the team’s Tour de France shortlist.
“It’s very, very important for me to win this race, maybe the biggest week-long stage race there is,” Vingegaard said after receiving his last leader’s jersey at the Grenoble Bastille, “so I’m very, very pleased and proud.”
“Once again, the team has been incredible, really strong. I was never isolated.”
“Winning a Tour gives you a huge confidence boost, but I already believed in myself a lot last year at the same point in the year, and that’s still the case.”
Vingegaard says he will have a brief period of rest and recovery this week, then start his final preparation, concluding “there’s still work to be done.” But to judge from the Dauphiné, some very significant foundations for a great performance in July have already been laid by the Dane and his team.
