Jonas Vingegaard cut a stoic figure as he arrived at the Visma-Lease a Bike team bus in Valloire after losing time to Tadej Pogačar on stage four of the Tour de France.
The Col du Galibier has a long history of playing a defining role in the French Grand Tour. Seconds, or even minutes, can be shipped on its brutal gradients, which have often put to bed dreams of overall victory in Paris.
Vingegaard lost 50 seconds – 35 at the line, and 13 in ceded bonus seconds – after being dropped by Pogačar on the climb, but has plenty of time to recover as the race continues. The Dane seemed optimistic as he spoke to journalists, including Cycling Weekly, explaining he expected deeper losses.
"We expected to be 3-0 behind, so maybe that’s a small victory," he said. "We came here believing that we would lose time, the three out of the first four stages. So to only lose time in one of them is pretty good, in my opinion.
"I would say I expected to be two minutes down or maybe more, so to be only 50 seconds behind is still quite good. My time will come, or our time will come."
After responding to Pogačar’s ferocious accelerations on the San Luca on stage two, hype around Vingegaard's form intensified, previously unknown following his spring crash in the Basque Country.
Vingegaard briefly tried to bridge across to Pogačar on the Galibier, but, as he often does, Pogačar kicked and kicked again until the Dane could no longer hang on. Sensing blood, Pogačar pushed on over the summit before attacking the descent down to Valloire.
"I would have liked to close the gap instead of it ending up opening even more," Vingegaard explained. "I think for the first part of the downhill I kept the gap then the second part is where gravity helps you out a bit more.
"I think it helped Tadej out in this situation. So I think that's just how it is and I have to accept it. Of course, I would have liked to stay with him but that's life. To be honest, I'm pretty satisfied as I was also doubting myself going into this Tour. So to only lose time in one out of three stages is more than we could have expected."
Towards the top of the climb, the two-time champion found himself isolated, while UAE Emirates boasted Juan Ayuso, Adam Yates and João Almeida all still with Pogačar.
Matteo Jorgenson was the last man alongside Vingegaard for Visma-Lease a Bike. Speaking afterwards, Visma-Lease a Bike DS Grischa Niermann said the Dane could have done with further firepower.
"I think today we saw that we missed an in-form Sepp Kuss in this race," Niermann said. "We don't have a climber like Sepp next to Jonas on the team."
After completing his warm down, Jorgenson said the day proved a "learning experience" for him. "I don't think it was great," he said. "I lost two and a half minutes or something. We wanted to set a hard pace on Galibier. We wanted to make sure that we set a really suffocating pace to reduce Tadej's explosivity.
"It was clear that we just didn't have the numbers to do it. I think the pace wasn't quite hard enough. That's what Jonas just told me, so that's just how it is."
