'He needs the seconds' - Danish solidarity helps Vingegaard at Vuelta

It always helps to have friends and allies in the peloton, especially when you’re in the business of trying to win a Grand Tour. Jonas Vingegaard was able to rely on the restraint of his compatriot Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) as he snared four bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint in Salamanca on stage 19 of the Vuelta a España.

The surprise move sees Vingegaard extend his advantage over João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) to 44 seconds ahead of the decisive summit finish at Bola del Mundo on Saturday.

But while Almeida was caught out by Vingegaard’s move, Pedersen was given a heads up. Indeed, the green jersey of the Vuelta was visibly restrained in the sprint, rolling across the line two places behind the Visma | Lease a Bike rider.

“I knew it would happen,” Pedersen confessed afterwards. “We’re both Danish and we talked together. You know it’s bonification seconds for him at that sprint as well, and he needs the seconds more than I need the points right now. As a fellow Dane, it didn’t make a lot of sense to push him there…”

Pedersen, who won in Monforte de Lemos on stage 15, is 100 points clear of Vingegaard in the points classification, and he will seal the green jersey in Madrid on Sunday. The former world champion will also hope for another chance to sprint for stage victory after losing out to Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in the bunch finish in Guijuelo on Friday.

Philipsen picked up his third stage victory of the Vuelta after his Alpecin-Deceuninck squad expertly piloted him into position on the gently climbing finale.

“I think it was pretty clear it would be a hard sprint with such an uphill kick, so yes, I expected it to be like this,” Pedersen said.

“It’s a pity not to win, but Jasper and his team were incredibly strong, they did a perfect lead-out and sprint. Today we were beaten by the better team.”