Jonas Vingegaard has responded to Remco Evenepoel’s accusations that he didn’t have ‘the balls to race’ during Sunday’s gravel stage at the Tour de France, saying with a smile that he was focused on ‘riding smart.’
Vingegaard and his Visma-Lease a Bike team rode defensively through the stage over the 14 gravel sectors near Troyes in central France, keen to limit the risk of losing time or going mano-a-mano with his biggest Tour rivals, especially Tadej Pogačar.
On the gravel roads, Pogačar and Evenepoel tried different attacks. Vingegaard was able to respond but never worked with them to distance other GC riders.
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Evenepoel surged away with 77 km to go on the gravel of the fourth-category Côte de Chacenay. Pogačar and Vingegaard joined him but the Dane refused to work.
With 20 km to race, Vingegaard caught Pogačar thanks to some superb work by teammate Matteo Jorgenson. Evenepoel and Primož Roglič were distanced but again Vingegaard refused to work.
"Tadej and I were not happy because maybe the whole Tour could have been decided,” Evenepoel said of the long-range attack.
"We have to accept race tactics and race situations, but sometimes you also need the balls to race, and unfortunately maybe Jonas didn't have them.”
Vingegaard was expecting the question during the Visma-Lease a Bike press conference on the rest day near Orleans south of Paris and hit back at Evenepoel, who often races aggressively rather than smart and defensively.
"We were mainly focused on not losing time," Vingegaard said.
"If I had gone with those two and they had left me behind on that sector where I had to let Pogačar ride a bit later, I would have lost the Tour yesterday. It wasn't a lack of "balls", I just rode smart.”
Vingegaard suffered a punctured lung, broken collarbone and several broken ribs in his serious injuries in the Itzulia Basque Country crash in early April and has claimed he has only trained seriously for six weeks.
He has been trying to limit his time losses, especially to Pogačar, in the first week of the Tour, in the hope he can find his best form for the final week, perhaps when the Slovenian is fading.
Vingegaard lost 50 seconds on the stage to Valloire and a further 25 seconds in the Cote d’Or time trial. He is now 1:15 down on Pogačar in the GC standings, with Evenepoel between them at 33 seconds and Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) fourth overall at 1:36.
“I feel like I’m growing,” said Vingegaard, perhaps playing mind games with his rivals and himself.
“I’m getting better and better. I’m at a high level, much higher than I ever expected with just a month and a half of preparation.”
Vingegaard described the opening nine stages as a 'relatively easy opening week’ but remains cautious about how much time he can afford to lose and perhaps still win the Tour de France, perhaps even in the final time trial to Nice.
“I can't put a number on that. Last year I took seven minutes in two days. Now we don't know how I'm going to react in the third week. We'll see day by day," he said,
"Of course, the closer I am, the better. But I trusted our plan last year. That worked. I trust the plan this year too. If I win, that's good. Otherwise, life just goes on. That crash changed a lot in that respect."
Pogačar seems obsessed with gaining time on Vingegaard whenever he can but the Dane is looking for allies to help him control Pogačar’s aggression.
"No, I don't see Pogačar as my only rival. I'm wary of the entire top 10, maybe even more riders,” he suggested.
"It's also to my advantage that there are several rivals. Then we can help each other to make it a hard race."
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