Vingegaard thrives on Pogacar's turf, Van Aert and Jorgenson sustain only minor scrapes after crashing

Let's start from the beginning. In the opening stage between Florence and Rimini, dsm-firmenich PostNL (the well-known duo of Frank van den Broek and Romain Bardet) got to celebrate victory, with Van Aert winning the peloton’s sprint behind them. Vingegaard also seemed to climb effortlessly, so Wilco Kelderman’s minor crash was the only blemish on an otherwise excellent day.

With that in mind, we headed to killer bee Bart Lemmen on Sunday morning, shortly before the start of stage two. "You just don't know, do you, you don't know where they stand," said the likable ex-soldier when we asked him in Cesenatico if the people within the Dutch WorldTour team were surprised by the strong performance of their two leaders on day one. As is well known by now, both Wout and Jonas had a subpar preparation for the Tour. "You see certain things in training, but you can’t gauge everything from training. But honestly: they’re such great champions... I can't really say I'm surprised that they perform so well!"

And Lemmen was right: the great champion Vingegaard was the only one who could follow Pogacar's attack on San Luca, confirming the Dane's good form. In the descent from said wall, the defending champion even took over from the Giro winner and versatile Slovenian (who, in turn, was not surprised by the level of his Danish rival). "For us, this was the best possible outcome. Tadej couldn’t drop Jonas, the bonus seconds were taken by the breakaway… That’s great. Jonas was excellent. And we were on Tadej Pogacar’s terrain. So, we certainly feared losing time beforehand," team leader Grischa Niermann told IDLProCycling.com and others after the race.

"It certainly won't be what the competition is hoping for — that he improves further,” the cheerful German said of the Scandinavian climbing star. "For us, it means we should simply be very happy because it was the best scenario imaginable. It wasn't a climb suited for Jonas, but he stayed there. He even took over from Tadej on the descent. Jonas felt very good and rode with a lot of confidence. It’s a good sign that he took over. We can work with that. But there's still three weeks of racing ahead. There’s already another very tough stage on day four. We didn't have the desired preparation with Jonas, but it looks like everything will be fine."

Clearly, Visma | Lease a Bike wants to avoid getting ahead of themselves after Vingegaard's stellar performance. "It remains a bit of a race into the unknown. A journey into the unknown," said Niermann. "We hope he improves further during the Tour. For us, it’s clear he’s very good. Otherwise, he couldn’t have done this. But with his inadequate preparation, we can’t guarantee it will still be like this in two weeks. So, we’re not counting our lucky stars just yet, and we won’t be popping any champagne."

Vingegaard himself, who later came to address the cycling press, was understandably over the moon. "This was a top day for me. To be honest, this was one of the stages where I expected to lose a bit of time. If I can follow Tadej, that’s a victory for me. I’m incredibly happy about that," beamed the 27-year-old rider, who then elaborated on his team’s tactics (we saw them take on a large part of the San Luca climb). "On the second ascent of San Luca, we wanted to set a high pace. UAE Team Emirates quickly took over, followed by Tadej’s attack. I tried to follow him, and luckily that worked. I decided to work with him from the top onwards. That’s very reassuring to know."

"I hope to be back to the old Vingegaard as soon as possible," concluded the two-time Tour winner. "That’s obviously difficult when you don’t know exactly where you stand. Especially in my case, with just a month and a half of training. It was hard to predict exactly where my form would be. I also had a lot of doubts. And that’s no lie, to be honest. Now, I can fortunately say that I’m back. Hopefully, three good weeks will follow."

There was also a minor incident involving Vingegaard. At one point, his pedal lightly touched the ground, though it was certainly not a near-fall. "That was a bit of a shock, of course. It wasn’t a problem in itself, but it does make you think about your previous crash. But I wouldn’t say I almost fell. I’m not afraid in the descents."

Those who did fall, however, were Wout van Aert and Matteo Jorgenson. Luckily without serious injuries, as Niermann made clear. "There was, of course, another nasty crash, involving Matteo and Wout. But they seem okay, so that’s nice. I spoke to Matteo right after. Apparently, he grabbed a supply bag with one hand off his handlebars. Then there was a big hole in the road. He rode into it, causing the crash. He took Wout with him. I think the first three fallen riders in this Tour are all Visma | Lease a Bike. That’s not great, but we’re happy Wilco is still fine after his fall on day one. Wout and Matteo only have abrasions, although that’s never good."