Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) said he likely did the "best one-minute performance" of his career on the punchy final into Rouen on stage 4 of the Tour de France, with him and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) again proving to be a cut above the rest of the opposition.
It was a familiar sight as the world champion attacked full throttle over the Rampe Saint-Hilaire, just over 5km from the finish, with Vingegaard following and everyone else blown out of the water.
For a moment, it looked like Vingegaard was fading, as he looked back and dropped for a second, but he fought back with gritted teeth to be on his rival's wheel over the KOM point. On Pogačar's home territory, Vingegaard was up to the challenge, allowing the chasers to come back as they slowed, with a reduced sprint deciding the win.
Vingegaard was delighted, rightly so, with his explosivity, albeit losing out in the final sprint to Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), but with the knowledge that his favoured terrain is still to come in weeks two and three of the Tour.
"With 50 metres to go with the climb, the pave was just too high, but then it was also too high for Pogačar, so he had to slow down," said Vingegaard at a heavily congested team bus.
"I've said it already that I'm more explosive now, and to be honest, on the climb there I think I showed it – that was probably my best ever one-minute performance. I think the shape is good, and I'm looking forward to the next days."
Vingegaard, contrastingly, was as calm as ever, while journalists fought to get their microphones in his face and fans tried to take a picture between the outstretched arms. Like on stage 2 into Boulogne-sur-Mer, third place was the maximum he could hope for in Rouen, and almost fully matching Pogačar's violent burst would have been a boost.
"It was a brutal final, with a lot of small climbs in the end. I can be happy with how I felt, how I did, how the team did," said Vingegaard, with his Visma teammates lighting things up on the climb before Pogačar tried to surge away.
His team had a similar sentiment, knowing that third in the sprint was already expected, but him following such an aggressive move from the world champion – which left Pogačar breathless over the final KOM point – was not, by some external commentators.
Matteo Jorgenson was also involved in the final, impressing as Visma's second option, and he was yet again impressed by his GC leader's punchy abilities, noting that he wouldn't have even tried to follow Pogačar's big move.
"Jonas was very strong to be able to follow [Pogačar]. I came back with Remco [Evenepoel] and tried to find a way to get ahead in the final, but again, Almeida was super strong, so chapeau to them," said Jorgenson to reporters after warming down on the trainer.
Vingegaard's impressing on the stages that don't suit him is perhaps an ominous sign of what is to come in the mountains. Many onlookers may have been expecting somewhat of a walkover from Pogačar as was the case last year, but the two-time Tour winner looks more than up for the fight, only four days into his pursuit of a third yellow jersey.
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