Just 87 days have elapsed since defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard crashed and suffered a collapsed lung and damaged ribs and a fractured collarbone. Only 54 days in the past, he rode exterior for the primary time since that crash, and competing for a 3rd Tour de France title appeared out of the query.
Even earlier than the beginning of the Tour de France, Vingegaard stated he was joyful to only be within the race, however on stage 2, his outstanding comeback obtained much more spectacular when he had no issues following a searing assault by Tadej Pogačar on the double-digit gradients of the Côte de San Luca.
While Pogačar moved into the yellow jersey of race chief, Vingegaard is scorching on his heels in third on the identical time together with Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost). They all gained 21 seconds over the remaining Tour de France contenders like Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe).
“I feel this went manner higher than I ever anticipated, so I’m actually glad,” Vingegaard stated to NBC after the stage.
“That I used to be capable of observe Tadej on the second climb of San Luca … I feel that is most likely one of many levels we feared essentially the most, or we truly anticipated me to lose time.
“Honestly talking I did not have a very good preparation for this race. I solely had one and a half months to arrange, most likely, so I feel I might be tremendous pleased with with how all the things goes thus far.
“I knew already earlier than my crash that the stage as we speak possibly suited him higher than it suited me, and particularly after my crash, I used to be much more behind. At least I can say now that if I’m not again not less than I’m tremendous, tremendous shut.”
More to return.