He probably didn't expect to win two stages and the general classification. Instead jonas vingegaard he succeeded and did it well. And thanks to those two successes and a consistently strong race management, he took home the International Coppi and Bartali Week.
Attack race
During the week, the standard-bearer of the Jumbo Visma he was really the strongest. He only finished outside the top six in sprint finishes, even though he still finished in the top twenty, which shows how “on point” he was. Plus, even though he wasn't the battleship we're used to seeing, his team was always united around him.
But be careful not to consider him an "unknown". Jonas had already raised his arms in the WorldTour, it happened at the Tour of Poland two years ago and it happened especially this year at theUAE Tower, when he had beaten none other than Tadej pogacar in the second uphill finish. It's no surprise, then, that he won two stages at the Coppi e Bartali, the one in Sogliano al Rubicone and the one in San Marino. Remember that although he's a good climber, he's also very fast.
Never panic
Maybe Jonas started out knowing he could do well, but maybe not knowing he could win. However, on the morning of the departure from Riccione, his bike was ready on the rollers. He wanted to warm up and so nothing was left to chance.
Then, from the penultimate stage onwards, things changed completely for him. He didn't race towards San Marino just for the stage, on the contrary... As he himself admitted, he was keeping an eye on the Englishman from Ineos Grenadiers, Hayter, for the issue of discounts, and the New Zealander Schultz, of BikeExchange.
«I did a very long sprint – Vingegaard said, after the San Marino stage – Suddenly I almost closed my eyes because the finish line never came. But once I'd gained those bonus seconds, I knew I could feel more relaxed heading into the final stage (yesterday's, ed.). At that point, I would have done everything I could to win the race."
One of Vingegaard's qualities, says his sporting director, Sierk Jan de Haan, it's that Jonas never panics. During this race, Coppie and Bartali were attacked a couple of times and didn't immediately manage to stay ahead. However, he looked around, saw which other men in the standings might have the same interest as him, and decided to end things with them or by exploiting their work.
Stop for you, ranking for me
And perhaps the most beautiful stage was the last one, the one where he felt like a true great. Together with his compatriot Mikkel Frolich, Honoré escaped ten kilometres from the finish. Maybe they even exchanged a knowing glance and as happens in the most classic cycling tradition, on the arrival in Forlì Jonas left the stage to his compatriot Deceuninck-Quick Step. As the greats really do and as perhaps the flagship suggested to them so as not to… slip like Roglic to the Paris-Nice. But we don't believe much in this second hypothesis, since the race ended at that finish line.
"No, no agreement," Honoré implied after the finish. "In fact, we set out trying to win the race." Deceuninck, in fact, tried to play a team game, isolating Vingegaard. His teammates were, in fact, very young. Consider that the oldest Jumbo rider present in the Romagna race was the Dane himself, at 24 years old, the others were between 19 and 21 years old.
Strengthened by this condition, Jumbo will take Vingegaard first to the Basque Country and then to the Ardennes, races in which he will be alongside Roglic. Then we will see if he will also be in the game at the Tour of Italy, will almost certainly be at the ReturnBut there's a long way to go between now and the end of summer... Meanwhile, Jonas enjoys his bottle of sparkling wine.
