“A small victory” for Jonas Vingegaard, despite his isolation on Galibier: “Where would he have ended up with Sepp Kuss?”

Last weekend, Visma-Lease a Bike was proud, and even after Galibier Jonas Vingegaard was not dissatisfied. But there was no indication of a very strong block in recent years on the Alpengiant.

Matteo Jorgenson held on for a long time and finished 12th at 2:42, but there was no sign of the other stewards in the final.

However, Tesj Pinot remains optimistic. “After 4 days, Jonas is 50 seconds behind Tadej (Pogacar): we definitely signed up for that before the Tour.”

“After last weekend, maybe we were hoping for more today, but we certainly can’t complain. The really tough stages are still to come. The situation is very good for us.”

There is a feeling of absence of Sepp Kuss in particular. “But where will Jonas end up with Sepp?”, Benoit repeated.

“I don’t know if it will change much. If the Emirates are driving, there is no problem. Today Seb would not have made a difference.”

“Some days he’s priceless, you can’t deny that. But now it was a one-on-one at the end and Pogacar was the better player.”

What does Vingaard himself think? “Losing time is a shame, but at the start of the Tour we expected that we would always lose time in the first days. We can only feel satisfied that it only happened today.”

However, Vingegaard could not ignore the lack of manpower. “Of course it is good that you still have assistants there, but today things were as they were. I am sure my teammates will continue to support me.”

With the European Championship in mind, Vingegaard concluded: “I could have been 3-0 down. So this is a small victory.”