Jonas Vingegaard has so far minimised the impact of his terrible Itzulia Basque Country crash during the 2024 Tour de France, showing impressive form after just six weeks of training and limiting his losses to UAE Team Emirates' Tadej Pogačar to just 50 seconds.
On Thursday, Vingegaard and his Visma-Lease a Bike team navigated the flat stage to Dijon with apparent ease, making sure they were united and on the right side of the split that formed in a brief moment of crosswinds. Christophe Laporte and Matteo Jorgenson then escorted him to the finish line, as Wout van Aert was given a brief moment of freedom to contest the stage 6 sprint.
It was a day of relative ease for Vingegaard. However, Friday’s 25.3km individual time trial through the Cote d’Or Bourgogne red wine region of central France will be a true race of truth.
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There will be no peloton for the Dane to hide in, no teammates to protect him. It will be Vingegaard against the clock and against race leader Pogačar, world time trial champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and all the other GC contenders.
All of Vingegaard’s rivals have completed pre-race reconnaissance rides of the time trial course, but his crash with the resulting many weeks in hospital and rehabilitation left him no time to travel to the Cote d’Or to see the route.
Vingegaard faced a possible evening reconnaissance car trip on Thursday, or may just wait until Friday morning for a ride when the course is closed.
“I haven't seen the time trial course yet, only on video. I should have been there to do a recon of it but then I crashed and couldn't do it,” Vingegaard admitted to Cycling Weekly after stage 6.
“I think it's slightly hilly, not so technical, but it will be quite a fast time trial I think.”
Vingegaard starts his ride at 16:56 local time, four minutes behind Roglič. Behind the Dane, Evenepoel takes the course and then Pogačar, the final rider on the course. It is unclear how much Vingegaard has been able to train on his time trial bike after his punctured lung and fractured ribs at Itzulia Basque Country in early April.
In 2023, Vingegaard set up his overall victory with a dominant performance in the hilly 22.4km Passy to Combloux time trial in the Alps. He gained 1:38 on Pogačar and three minutes on everyone else, before Pogačar famously cracked on the following day’s stage to Courchevel.
This year, the time trial tables have turned. Pogačar appears to have improved his time trialling and his equipment, winning the first time trial in the Giro d’Italia and only narrowly being defeated by Filippo Ganna in the second.
The general classification and Vingegaard’s overall ambitions of a third Tour victory could look very different on Friday.
“I think normally Tadej is always doing quite good time trials. So for sure he will be good, as will Remco,” Vingegaard predicted.
“I guess Remco will be the big favourite. I'll just do my best and then we will have to see what the result will be.”
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