Paris (AFP) - Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard was back in the saddle and back in the mix on Tuesday, finishing with the main pack on the first stage of the six-day Tour of Croatia.
Italian rider Jonathan Milan of Bahrain-Victorious won the 223km flat run on a rainy day that finished in Ludbreg with Denmark's Vingegaard zipping over the line shortly after in the main group.
Croatia's Matej Mohoric had broken for the line from a distance but was swallowed up by his pursuers 300m from home.
The shy and retiring Vingegaard went to ground after his Tour de France win, but poured cold water on concerns he had struggled mentally with the attention success had brought him.
"I can handle the pressure," Vingegaard told the Danish daily Ekstra Bladet on Monday.
"All year, you prepare for the Tour de France, and suddenly it's over, and then it's like...I don't want to say 'empty', but it's a funny feeling.
"It also makes sense to be protected from time to time and to be able to relax a bit."
Vingegaard said his ambitions for the 2022 season were not over yet.
"I needed a break after the Tour, so I took a month off and enjoyed life.I have been training in Spain for the last month in preparation for the end of the season.My main goal in this part of the year is Il Lombardia," he said.
The Tour of Lombardy is a monument race, one of the big five ultra-long one-day races, staged October 8.
Former Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas was also in action Tuesday after his third place at the 2022 Tour.
But he trailed home in 94th place, a minute and 19 seconds off Vingegaard's time.
A third Tour winner, Egan Bernal, had been due to race alongside Thomas, but the Colombian withdrew to undergo knee surgery.
