Jonas Vingegaard made it through the still sketchy shortened stage 7 at Paris-Nice unscathed, but he remained adamant in his opinion that the day should have been even shorter, with the slippery conditions in the final causing crashes.
It was the opinion he'd given at the start of the day, and after just over an hour of racing in the cold and wet conditions, race leader Vingegaard's opinion had only been solidified by what he saw in the final.
"We were, and we are very pro racing, because I also think we need to understand that Paris-Nice is one of the biggest races, they have a lot of sponsors and there is a stage today they want to do," Vingegaard told reporters at the finish, including CyclingProNet.
"So we are actually pro racing, but maybe when the finish line is here, it is not possible, and it would have been better to have the actual finish with 10km to go.
"Now it seems like there were a few crashes in the end, maybe because it was slippery – it seemed quite slippery – so in that situation, probably it would have been better to have the finish line a bit earlier. That's actually what we want as well because, as bike riders, rain is part of the job, but when there's snow, it's a bit different."
A bizarre day at Paris-Nice saw its queen stage – which already had the mountaintop finish to Auron removed – cut down to just 47km of racing, with cold and wet weather near the Alps forcing the organisers to prioritise rider safety.
The riders did eventually start the altered day, but a crash for three riders in the neutral zone was an ominous sign of things to come. When they entered snow-lined roads for the final 10km, two big crashes at the front and rear of the bunch took out the likes of yesterday's stage winner Harold Tejada (XDS Astana).
Vingegaard confirmed he managed to avoid the crash in the finale despite being held up by it as Dorian Godon went on to take victory for Ineos Grenadiers. He rolled across the line in 60th, and will be praying it's the last he's seen of the horrific weather tomorrow, with one final climbing day to race in Nice to confirm a massive overall victory.
"I still think maybe there could have been something different. We could have stopped a bit earlier because now, in the end, it might have been a bit slippery, it seems and there were some big crashes," he reiterated in his yellow jersey interview.
"It wouldn't have been a problem at all if we had stopped 10 kilometres earlier and made the finish line there. [But] I'm fine. I backed off at the right moment and I made sure I wasn't involved in the crash. For me personally, I'm okay, and I hope that everyone who crashed is OK.
"Tomorrow is a new day. Hopefully, we'll have a bit nicer weather. We'll see. I just hope to keep the jersey after tomorrow as well."
Vingegaard leads the race by 3:22 from Dani Martínez, with the rest of the top 10 on GC all more than five minutes down, and most of them closer to 10 minutes in arrears after the Dane's two dominant stage victories.
