“Not Be Decided on Four Seconds”: After Unsatisfying Result in Stage 1 of Tour de France, Reigning Champion Goes Candid on the 2,115 Miles Race

It’s early July and the flagship cycling event Tour de France is back for its annual edition. The 23-day race, which coincidentally finishes on Bastille Day, is already underway and has concluded its stage 1 contest. Starting from Bilbao, Spain this time, the race promises to be every bit fun as last time. The defending champion from last time, Jonas Vingegaard, hasn’t had the best of starts in this year’s race so far. However, with 20 more days to go, Vingegaard is confident that a small lag in time won’t matter much.

Jonas Vingegaard finished an overall 9th after Stage 1 of the Tour de France. While he is 22 seconds behind Adam Yates, who went on to win Stage 1 of the race, Vingegaard also finished excruciatingly close to his rival and yet was 4 seconds behind him.

Despite lagging behind, Vingegaard is proud of his team at Tour de France 2023

“I guess he took four seconds. The Tour de France will probably not be decided on four seconds”, said Vingegaard to a reporter outside the Jumbo-Visma’s team hotel, as per Cycling News. Vingegaard spoke to the reporter after he finished 9th on Stage 1, but seemed unfettered and unfazed by the lag in time he is currently at.

Vingegaard is from the Dutch Team Jumbo-Visma, who performed a stellar performance on Day 1, despite their below-satisfactory results. The final climb of the day, the Cote de Pike, was especially the hardest since it was 10km from the finish line and was tucked in the hilly Basque Country. The Jumbo-Visma did well on their peloton bikes to chart the steep ride and match up with their competition. In the end, though, they fell slightly short.

With enough time left, Vingegaard isn’t worried about Stage 1

Vingegaard’s rival Tadej Pogacar is a Slovenian cyclist who rides for the UAE Team Emirates. He won the 2020 and 2021 editions successively but fell a few seconds behind Kirkegaard to come 2nd last year. At the moment he has a headstart over Vingegaard after Stage 1, but Vingegaard considers it negligible. Despite missing out on winning the 1st Stage, Vingegaard was all praises for his team. He said, “I think I can be very happy with my own team. They kept me safe all day, so I guess I have to give them a big thanks for that.”

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As Stage 2 of the race is currently underway, several other updates have come to light. Ecuadorian cyclist Richard Carapaz suffered a brutal injury and is now out of the race. Vingegaard, on the other hand, will look to make some early headway into the race and omit the slight time difference that exists between him and Pogacar. However, in order to defend his title, Vingegaard will need to push harder and catch up to the current lead Adam Yates. However, more than 20 days remain for that to be decided.

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