Jorgenson concedes Visma misjudged wind conditions
A change in wind direction put Visma | Lease a Bike on the back foot during the stage 5 team time trial, but a brilliant negative split ride powered them into second place. Jonas Vingegaard is back in the race ahead of the first Pyrenean challenge.
At one point during Wednesday’s Vuelta a España team time trial it seemed as though Jonas Vingeaard would drop down the general classification, such was Visma | Lease a Bike’s early deficit.
Provisional timings showed the squad was so far down that Juan Ayuso would occupy the race leader’s red jersey, with João Almeida and Marc Soler just behind. However, they recovered well during the second half of the 24.1km stage around the the Catalan town of Figeures, eventually finishing the stage in second place, limiting their deficit to UAE Team Emirates-XRG to just eight seconds. Vingegaard start stage 6 with a lead of eight seconds over Ayuso and Almeida.
Reports during the race suggested the wind out on the pan flat course had shifted, something which appears to have frustrated Visma’s pre-race plan.
“I think we maybe misunderstood the wind from the recon,” said Matteo Jorgenson, who now sits in seventh overall, 16 seconds behind his teammate. “We thought it was tailwind going out, so we held back a little bit. But also, we plan always to do a bit faster in the second half, so if it was faster in the second half with the tailwind, then it makes sense that we came back, but not enough for the win.”
The stage win would certainly have been Visma’s ambition, but they were at a disadvantage before the race even started, as Axel Zingle’s withdrawal after his stage 2 crash meant they had only seven men to UAE’s eight.
“We came to win the stage, so definitely didn’t meet that objective. But of course, for the GC of the Vuelta, seven seconds is not going to be he winning margin in Madrid. So, yeah, I think we’ll just have to analyse today and see why we didn’t win the stage.”
With the Vuelta’s first big mountain showdown coming on stage 6, Jorgenson will be called on to once again help Vingegaard on the climb to Pal in Andorra. And despite having raced the Tour de France just a few short weeks ago, the American is ready for the challenge.
“I was able to push well and felt pretty fast. I think we have some things to work on, but, yeah, I felt personally really good,” he said.
Result: stage 5, Vuelta a España
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