Jonas Vingegaard completes Gran Camiño sweep with time trial victory

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) completed his sweep of O Gran Camiño by winning the concluding stage 4 time trial in Santiago de Compostela. The Tour de France champion has enjoyed a remarkable start to the 2023 season in Galicia, winning back-to-back mountain stages before beating his teammate Rohan Dennis to add the final stage.

After Tadej Pogačar began his season last week with dominant wins at Jaén Paraiso Interior and the Vuelta a Andalucía, Vingegaard has responded in kind of a volley of victories in north-western Spain.

The opening stage of O Gran Camiño was cut short and cancelled by snowfall, but Vingegaard had already shown signs of form before the freezing temperatures stopped play, and he proceeded to run through the scales on the three remaining stages.

After soloing to victory ahead of Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar) at Monte Trega on Friday, Vingegaard repeated the dose on Alto do Castelo the following day. In Sunday’s 18km finale in Santiago de Compostela, Vingegaard didn’t skip a beat as he powered to the first time trial victory of his career.

Dennis was the early pace-setter but Vingegaard, the last man down the start ramp, was already 24 seconds clear of the Australian at the same check, and he didn’t relent thereafter on the climb towards the finish on Santiago’s striking Plaza do Obradoiro, where he came within metres of catching Guerreiro for two minutes.

Vinegaard would win the stage by 35 seconds from Dennis, with Will Barta (Movistar) taking third at 59 seconds.

In the overall standings, Vingegaard sealed the yellow jersey by some 2:31 from Jesus Herrada (Cofidis), while Guerreiro placed third at 2:48, fending off Vingegaard’s teammate Attila Valter by just five seconds.

Vingegaard will next line out at Paris-Nice, where he is set for his first head-to-head meeting with Pogacar this season.

“It’s been a nice race for us, three stage wins and the GC, so I’m, of course, super happy, and the team is as well. I think we can go home satisfied and happy,” Vingegaard said.

“I think this is a very nice race, I really enjoyed it here. We’ve been unlucky with the weather on a few days, but in general, I really like the area and the race too.”

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