Big gaps for ‘killer’ Vingegaard
Those are gaps that Pogačar usually has in the Tour de France after three weeks; Vingegaard registered this dominance in only eight days. But they were extraordinary days, particularly Wednesday’s stage 4, when biting cold, lashing rain and strong crosswinds tore apart the peloton and caused dozens of crashes on the road – and no fewer than 15 DNFs (after a final count), including that of Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), who was leading the race by 2 seconds when he crashed on a descent while riding in a small lead group that included Vingegaard.
The young Spaniard’s absence in the rest of the stages makes it difficult to judge just how good Vingegaard’s performance was because, though Martínez, Steinhauser and Vauquelin are excellent riders, they are not in Pogačar’s league. Ayuso, on the other hand, is an almost-superstar and has been in good form with his new team, so he would have provided a more accurate measure. It would also have provided a yardstick for measuring how good the Spaniard is at the moment. And the rain-disrupted stage certainly helped inflate Vingegaard’s winning margins.
But there was no mistaking the superstar quality of Vingegaard’s performance in Thursday’s stage 5. He took off 20.8km from the finish line, on a 13% ramp of the short but steep category 1 Côte de Saint-Jean-Muzols (2.2km @ 10.5%), and left his GC rivals spinning their pedals. Six kilometers later he led the seven-rider chase group by 32 seconds and continued to increase his lead over the last two climbs of the stage, crossing the line 2:02 ahead of Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) and 2:25 in front of Harold Tejada (XDS Astana) and the rest of the chasers. (Tejada went on to win Friday’s stage 6 with a short, impressive solo, registering his first WorldTour victory.)
As Vingegaard’s invaluable teammate Victor Campenaerts put it after the stage, “Killer Jonas destroyed everybody. He’s been very relaxed since the December training camp and feeling very ready for it. Clearly, when we came to Paris-Nice, already beforehand, [the goal] wasn’t to do race miles or whatever. It was to come here and smash it.”
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Is the old Vingegaard back?
The stage happened to pass over the road where Vingegaard had crashed during last year’s race, sustaining a concussion and dropping out of the race. He told TNT Sports that he hadn’t been aware of that until he reached the actual spot where he had crashed. He also praised the weather, which had turned around from the previous day. “It’s nice to take revenge now. The weather is beautiful, and it’s been an amazing day for me and the team.”
He went on to say: “I really wanted to win today and so did the team. They did an amazing job. They made sure there was a good group out in the front, and then they kept the gap very short. We wanted to win and take as much time as possible, and once again, thanks to my teammates, [we did]. They deserve the champagne tonight.”
On Sunday’s final stage, the riders were confronted with three categorized climbs over just 129km, with the hardest climb, the category 1 Côte du Linguador (3.3km @ 8.3%), coming last. Vingegaard took off on that climb, 21km from the finish, but this time he was not alone: Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) stuck to his wheel all the way to the line and was able to hold off the Dane in a sprint, preventing Vingegaard from winning a third stage. But that didn’t diminish his triumph, for in addition to the GC the Dane also won the King of the Mountains competition and the points classification, a rare sweep of the major jerseys.
The question his performance raises is whether we will finally see the Vingegaard of 2023, the year he registered his last Tour de France win, and before that dominant rider vanished for nearly two years after his devastating crash in the 2024 Itzulia Basque Country. It is beginning to look as if we just might.
A disappointing race for Girmay
The weather again interfered big time on Saturday’s stage 7, with a snowstorm at the original summit finish line and another brutal downpour forcing organizers to shorten the stage twice, ultimately to only 46.9km of gradual uphill racing that pleased nobody, except Dorian Godon. The Frenchman won the soggy bunch sprint, marked by several crashes in the run-up to the finale, and secured his first victory for INEOS Grenadiers.
Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling) finished second, capping a frustrating race for the 2024 Tour de France Škoda Green Jersey winner and his new team. He was trapped at the barrier by the eventual winner of stage 1, Luke Lamperti (EF Education–EasyPost), and he and his lead-out team became lost in the chaotic run-up to the sprint at the end of stage 2, which was won by Max Kanter (XDS Astana). There are apparently still a few wrinkles to be ironed out between NSN and Girmay in the lead-out execution.
General classification
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Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike 25:25:11
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Dani Martínez, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +4:23
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Georg Steinhauser, EF-Education–EasyPost +6:07
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Kévin Vauquelin, INEOS Grenadiers +6:24
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Lenny Martinez, Bahrain Victorious +7:31
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Marc Soler, UAE Team Emirates–XRG +9:09
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Ion Izagirre, Cofidis +9:19
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Mathys Rondel, Tudor Pro Cycling +10:23
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Alex Baudin, EF-Education–EasyPost +10:33
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Harold Tejada, XDS Astana +11:40
