'My winter pants might come out tomorrow' - Vingegaard braced for snow at Paris-Nice

It remains to be seen if the toughest stage of Paris-Nice will be held in its entirety with a forecast of freezing temperatures and heavy snow placing considerable doubt on Saturday’s summit finish at Auron.

Speaking in Apt after he successfully defended the yellow jersey on Friday, Jonas Vingegaard expressed the belief that organiser ASO would be forced to devise an alternative route for stage 7. 

The Dane moved into the overall lead with victory in miserable conditions at Uchon on a windswept stage 4, where the high speed meant he was unable to remove his bib tights ahead of the final climb.

Vingegaard won again beneath clear blue skies at Colombier-le-Vieux the following day, and the weather remained clement on stage 6, but he is braced for frigid temperatures on Saturday.

“I have my winter pants, so… I won’t say that I hope we go to the finish, because that wouldn’t be nice even with my winter pants, but they might come out tomorrow,” Vingegaard joked in the mixed zone afterwards. 

“We also have to trust that ASO have the safety of the riders in mind. I believe they will have a plan B or something that they will do instead.”

In the press room a little later, Vingegaard was asked what action he would take on Saturday if he were the race organiser.

“I am curious what the decision will be, if we can do it or not. It’s not up to me to decide. But I believe that ASO will make a good decision on this,” he said.

“It’s obviously hard for them, it’s really a shame. I think we will all would have liked to race and go to the top there. I think if it was me, I would see if I could find a climb where it might not be so bad. But I also haven’t looked that much into the weather forecast. It could also be that it’s simply not possible. Time will tell.”

Vingegaard is without peer at this Paris-Nice, where he holds a lead of some 3:22 over Daniel Martinez (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) atop the overall standings, and he began Friday’s leg to Apt with a chance to become the first man since Freddy Maertens in 1977 to win three consecutive stages at the race. 

His Visma | Lease a Bike teammate Victor Campenaerts was prominent in whittling down the GC group on the final climb, an effort that forced the team’s fast man Axel Zingle off the back, but Vingegaard preferred not to take any risks on the drop to the line. He came home 19th on the stage, in the chasing group six seconds behind lone escapee Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana).

“I don’t really like it when it’s downhill in the finish and this was quite dangerous. I just wanted to get safely to the finish,” he said.

“We wanted to make sure that the break got caught back but it’s a thin line because we also wanted to have Axel over the top, so you have to go hard but you don’t want to go all-out.”

Regardless of what course is ultimately tackled on Saturday, Vingegaard indicated that he hoped to add to his tally of stage wins over the final weekend of Paris-Nice.

“If it’s possible, yeah, I would still like to win a stage,” he said. “But we have to see what’s possible in the coming days. The most important is to keep the yellow jersey until Nice.”