SerpApi.Org
On Tuesday's Tour de France stage 10, Jonas Vingegaard lost some time to Tadej Pogacar, as well as a few meters to some of his closest rivals. This followed an interview the Danish rider from Visma | Lease a Bike gave the night before the rest day, on Danish TV. On THEMOVE, Lance Armstrong and Bradley Wiggins discussed these topics.
Vingegaard said he approached management to ask for a different approach. “I already said last year that if things continued this way, I wouldn’t be able to keep competing or continue,” said the Dane. His team went along with this by offering him a different training program and limiting the training camps.
Armstrong heard that sentiment too, just like most cycling fans around the world. “While I was reading the news on the rest day, this article came out saying he was considering retiring. I don’t know, I just don’t get it. You’re either in it all the way, or you’re not. This is the toughest sport in the world; there’s no middle ground... As soon as I saw that headline, I immediately thought of what Bradley said early in the race.”
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Is Wiggins' gut feeling right?
After Stage 6, Wiggins said he had a gut feeling that Vingegaard wouldn't finish the Tour, after he had struggled on the climb up the Tourmalet. "We've never seen him like that before, not even when he was second in the general classification," the Briton now reiterates.
"Last year, he was still thinking, 'How can we win this race? What else can the team do to put Pogačar in trouble?'... But this year he’s been less consistent, and not only that; his body language as he crossed the finish line—where he even lost a few seconds to the group he was in—it’s a shame to see him like this. He’s a great champion.”
"With Jonas, it's like you've pulled the plug on an inflatable. I really can't believe how much time he lost on that last stretch," Wiggins continues. “Those 12 seconds are very unusual for him. And this is going to be like blood in the water for the other guys. They’re all going to be chasing that second-place spot now. They see that it’s possible.”
"He lost time, but you could just tell by the look on his face. They really did us a favor by showing that slow-motion clip of him crossing the finish line. He just looked defeated," adds Armstrong, who returns to the topic of the interview. “What would Johan Bruyneel say if you were giving interviews on a rest day saying, ‘I don’t want this, I don’t like going to training camp, I wanted to quit’? Why are you talking like that in the middle of the Tour de France?”
