'Bola del Mundo will decide everything' - Vingegaard clings to Vuelta lead
The effects of Jonas Vingegaard's long, long summer of Grand Tour racing have begun to show on the Vuelta a España but he is doing just enough to keep João Almeida at bay. The race will come down to a high stakes duel on the penultimate day.
Jonas Vingegaard remains in the red jersey of the Vuelta a España, but he will be glad that João Almeida is running out of road in which to take it off him.
Indeed, it surely helped Vingegaard’s cause that the stage 18 time trial in Valladolid had been shortened from to 12.2km from its original 27.2km due to security concerns amid ongoing protests at Israel-Premier Tech’s participation in the race.
Vingegaard limited his losses on Almeida to 10 seconds on Thursday, which keeps his overall lead at 40 seconds, but the damage might have been heftier had he faced an additional 15km against the watch.
“It’s hard to tell,” Vingegaard said when he reached the press conference truck afterwards. “I mean, it’s two very different things. This shorter time trial is a bit more explosive, whereas a longer time trial you can find a pace for the whole time trial, so I think it’s hard to say.”
That debate is academic, in any case. This Vuelta had already seen two previous stages shortened due to human rights demonstrations against Israel’s ongoing invasion of Gaza, and there are still no guarantees that the race will run its full course to Madrid.
Vingegaard and Almeida can only race the course that’s placed in front of them, in other words, and to this point, the Dane has managed to keep his rival at arm’s length. He won at Limone Piemonte on stage 2 and again at Valdezcaray on stage 9, but he confessed that he has been short of his best since then. He told TV2 earlier this week that he had suffered with illness during the second week.
“I do actually think my shape is pretty ok,” Vingegaard said in his press conference on Thursday. “I haven’t been at 100% in the last week, but coming into this race, I was in good shape, and I think the shape is still ok. We will see how it is in the next days.”
It’s difficult to see how Almeida will be able to discommode Vingegaard and Visma | Lease a Bike on the rolling stage to Guijuelo on Friday, and so their duel will come down to the last mountain stage in the Sierra de Guadarrama on Saturday, with its summit finish on Bola del Mundo.
“I think everything will be decided now on Bola del Mundo,” Vingegaard said. “I’m still in the lead so I think I can be happy with that. I’m happy with where I am now and hopefully I can keep the jersey until Madrid.
“Of course, I would also love to win on Bola del Mundo, but I think now the most important is to try to keep the red jersey. Of course, it will be hard. I expect a lot of attacks in the coming days.”
The Valladolid time trial was shortened due to security concerns, with barriers erected more or less all around the 12.2km course in a bid to ensure the peaceful demonstrations against Israel’s invasion of Gaza didn’t spill out onto the course.
“I didn’t feel like there was any moment were I didn’t feel safe,” Vingegaard said. “I felt safe at least.”
