'Not completely fair' - Visma push back against critique of Vingegaard's Giro time trial

It could hardly be classed as a crisis, given that Jonas Vingegaard is still in a commanding position in the Giro d’Italia standings and still the clear favourite to win the Trofeo Senza Fine in Rome on May 31.

But it’s also true that Vingegaard’s performance in the stage 10 time trial to Massa was an underwhelming one by his exalted standards. Although he put more time into rivals like Felix Gall and Jai Hindley, his 13th-place finish, exactly three minutes down on winner Filippo Ganna, suggested that he is still some way short of his best.

At the start in Porcari on Wednesday, however, Visma | Lease a Bike sports director Marc Reef gently pushed back against that idea, suggesting that expectations for Vingegaard’s time trial have been unreasonably skewed by his crushing display in the hilly Combloux time trial on the Tour de France three years ago. 

“The reference, I think, is always going to be the Tour de France TT in 2023, and I think that is not completely fair,” Reef said in Porcari on Wednesday. “It was maybe one of his best days on the bike. And if you compare that parcous to this parcours, then I think you have the answer already.”

It is certainly true that Ganna’s supersonic display – his average speed was the fastest in a time trial of more than 40km in Grand Tour history – made for an unflattering time gap on the stage, but Vingegaard’s performance relative to his GC rivals was still a little below par.

The Dane conceded over a minute to Thymen Arensman, the day’s big GC winner, and he only picked up 18 seconds on a Giulio Pellizzari who had been hindered by illness in recent days. The display leaves Vingegaard still second overall, 27 seconds behind pink jersey Afonso Eulálio and 1:30 up on Arensman.

“If you take Ganna away, then it’s just one minute to Arensman,” Reef said. “And I think that on a parcours like this, it’s quite normal, when you think of how big Arensman is, how much power he can push and how much weight he has. It’s always about the weight-power ratio. 

“Maybe losing 10, 15 seconds less would be more ideal, but I think that we can be okay with how the result was in the end. And when we look to the other good climbers of the first two mountain finishes, Jonas gained 1:20 on Gall, he gained time on Hindley, and he gained time on Pellizzari. I think that we can just be happy with the outcome.”

Reef confirmed that Vingegaard had not neglected the importance of time trial training in any way amid his preparations for a tilt at the Giro-Tour double – “We knew how important this stage was” – and he suggested that the flat, fast and almost entirely straight parcours had simply not been to his rider’s liking. 

“It hurt it a lot, that’s what he said. He came completely dead at the finish line because it was difficult to stay in the position for such a long time.”

In the latest episode of his podcast, Netcompany-Ineos director of racing Geraint Thomas described Vingegaard as being “off the boil” on this Giro, despite his two stage wins, and he even speculated on whether the Dane had been suffering from illness. 

“After the cold days, I think the whole bunch is dealing sometimes with a small cough or sometimes a bit of sneezing – but I think that’s nothing,” Reef said when Thomas’ comments were put to him.

As the Giro reached its midway point on Wednesday, Vingegaard remained on course to complete the first left of his attempted double. He has come through the first half of the Giro with stage wins at the Blockhaus and Corno alle Scale, and with more than 90 seconds in hand on all of his GC rivals.

Vingegaard and Visma have also achieved those gains without ever seeming to need to expend more energy than was strictly necessary, though Reef insisted this strategy was taken with the third week of the Giro in mind rather than the showdown with Tadej Pogacar in July.

“In a Grand Tour, is’s always about managing your energy, and we know that the last week in the Giro is the hardest one, so we also need to preserve some energy for that,” Reef said. “I think we are doing a very good job so far.  Jonas has already won two stages, and he has quite a gap after 10 days of racing and after only two mountaintop finishes. 

“We are exactly where we wanted to be, but we still have a week and a half of hard racing. There is a very hard mountain stage at Pila on Saturday, and then we also have three big mountain stages in the last week, and in three of the last four years, it turned around on the last day. We have big trust in ourselves and also in Jonas – but the race is only over in Rome.”