'I would have liked to win on the Angliru' - Vingegaard reflects on Vuelta so far
With two stage wins in the pocket and the red jersey on his shoulders, Jonas Vingegaard remains on track with his pre-race ambitions of winning the Vuelta, but the Dane remains focused ahead of a crucial third and final week
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) is ‘super satisfied’ as he leads the Vuelta a España into the second rest day with a 48-second advantage over his closest challenger, João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), with Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) in third.
Vingegaard reflected on his two stage victories, as well as admitting that he has one slight regret when asked by Eurosport if there is anything he would change.
“Yeah, I mean, of course, I’m super satisfied with how it went, two stage wins, and yeah, I can’t even remember how many days in the red jersey, but something, of course, I’m super happy about,’ said Vingegaard
“I think if there is one thing I could change, I would have liked to win on the Angliru, but I can’t change that now, and still I have two stage wins, so I’m super happy with that.”
Despite the breakaway contesting the victory on stage 15, with Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) winning, over 10 minutes ahead of the peloton, Vingegaard revealed that it wasn’t an easy day for the bunch behind.
"No, actually not, it was not an easy day, even in the bunch when the breakaway was gone we still had to push for it, and especially my teammates Dylan [Van Baarle] and Wilco [Kelderman], they had to push also even more, so they probably had a harder day than we would have expected," he said.
Ahead of the crucial final week, Vingegaard plans for a relaxed rest day, stating, "We always go for a short ride and from then just relax and stay as relaxed as possible."
The third week kicks off on Tuesday with a challenging stage in Galicia, a region Vingegaard is familiar with, having won the O Gran Camiño stage race in 2022 and 2023.
“I think tomorrow we will go on the bike to do a recon. I spoke with Grischa Niermann, and we will see one of the climbs at least. We will see something of the route on Tuesday.
"To be honest, I always enjoyed racing in Galicia. Of course, the weather was not the nicest when I did it, but it's summer now, so we can hope on Tuesday it's better weather. I like this region very much."
When asked which stages in the final week will be most crucial, Vingegaard emphasised the importance of them all, with summit finishes, potential crosswinds and an individual time trial all on the menu before Madrid.
"All of them, except maybe for Madrid. We start with a very, very hard stage on Tuesday, and Wednesday is an uphill finish, then the day after is the time trial. Then maybe there is a crosswinds stage and then Bola del Mundo, so basically all the stages are super important."
Despite holding the race lead, Vingegaard remains cautious about his advantage heading into the decisive final week.
"We would always like to have more than 48 seconds, but I'm just happy to be in the leader's jersey, to be honest. That's something that the team and I are very happy with. We have to see if we can keep the jersey until Madrid."
Vingegaard was also asked about a protestor incident that saw Javier Romo (Movistar) and a Soudal-QuickStep rider crash in the breakaway with 56km remaining.
"We didn't hear anything about what happened. We saw Javier [Romo] coming back after a crash, but we didn't know exactly what happened to him," he said. "I think all the people who are demonstrating they are just searching for a way to get to the news. I think they think it doesn't get enough attention, and they're really desperate, and that's why they do it here, I guess. Of course, it's unfortunate that it has to happen here in the Vuelta."
