Jonas Vingegaard was defiant after shedding but extra time to Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel in stage seven’s particular person time trial on the Tour de France.
The Dane fell additional behind the present race chief, Pogačar, within the battle for the yellow jersey after ending the race towards the clock 37 seconds slower than Evenepoel, the stage winner in Gevrey-Chambertin.
Vingegaard now sits extra one minute and 15 seconds down on Pogačar after starting the day 50 seconds behind the Slovenian.
Regardless of the time loss, Vingegaard stored an optimistic perspective after the stage.
“To be sincere I feel it was an excellent time trial for me,” the defending champion stated. “I am proud of my efficiency, and to solely lose 37 seconds to Remco on a time trial that fits him fairly properly is a reasonably good end result for me.
“I would not say it is a massive hit, relatively the other truly. I anticipated to lose extra time. It is a time trial that is far more beneficial for him so it is good to solely lose 25 seconds to him as we speak.
“Final 12 months I took seven and a half minutes in two levels, the ability is there so we simply should consider in our plan.”
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Vingegaard repeated the identical feedback that he made earlier than the race started in Italy, reiterating that he was comfortable simply to have the ability to begin the race in any respect after recovering from the punctured lung, fractured ribs and collarbone that he sustained in his horrible spring crash.
“In fact I’ve ambitions and I wish to do properly right here, however anyway, what occurs occurs and I can’t change it,” he stated relating to his time loss.
“I feel San Luca was the day I fearful most about [before the race]. There I didn’t lose time and as we speak I solely misplaced 25 seconds on a course that fits Remco and Tadej rather more than me. So I feel to solely lose 25 seconds is an effective day for me as we speak.”
Visma-Lease a Bike DS Grischa Niermann echoed the identical line as Vingegaard by the crew bus after the stage, saying the plan remained to get the Dane on the rostrum on the finish of the race.
“We knew that it wasn’t a parcours for him,” Niermann advised Biking Weekly, set to the backdrop of an area winery. “He did super-well and I feel now we have to be proud of that. I feel he did an excellent TT as we speak.”
“It is an amazing achievement that Jonas is in the beginning of the Tour de France,” he added. “He is trying good, he’s feeling good, he’s assured and I do not suppose we might have hoped for extra after seven days of racing.
“In fact the dream remains to be to win the Tour de France. Tadej Pogačar is trying extraordinarily good, extraordinarily robust and he has a powerful crew round him.
“It will likely be a tough activity however as soon as once more everyone must be very, very comfortable that Jonas is right here in France within the form he’s proper now.”
