"My legs were good, but tactically it wasn't great": Vingegaard reflects on Alto de Foia

Visma | Lease a Bike was the team that pushed the pace in the queen stage of the five-day Portuguese race. Loe van Belle controlled the race for most of the day and was later praised by sports director Arthur van Dongen for his efforts. Later, Wout van Aert and Tiesj Benoot significantly increased the tempo on two climbs before the finish, reducing the peloton to around forty or fifty riders.

The 'new' finish — coming from the opposite side — on the Alto de Foia allowed for an aggressive race, which Visma | Lease a Bike and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe executed on the Pomba climb. However, Sepp Kuss and Wilco Kelderman were dropped earlier than expected, while Roglic lost Oier Lazkano early on, forcing Jan Tratnik to start working.

Ben Tulett, following Vingegaard's advice from the chasing group, then decided to join a breakaway group consisting of Jan Christen (UAE Emirates-XRG), Laurens De Plus (INEOS Grenadiers), Luca Vergalitto (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Remy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ), and Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost). The Brit set up his leader well, but the situation changed for Visma | Lease a Bike when he got dropped.

This put Visma | Lease a Bike in a difficult position, forcing Vingegaard to make a move in the final kilometers, which he executed well. The Dane rode a strong final kilometer, limiting his losses, though João Almeida, António Morgado (UAE Emirates-XRG), and Picnic PostNL's Romain Bardet still finished ahead of him from the peloton. Christen won the stage from the breakaway, while Roglic finished ninth.

"The feeling was good, but the result was disappointing in the end," Vingegaard said through his team's channels. "The team executed the plan we had. Things were looking good for us with Ben on the attack in the final phase. Unfortunately, he had to let the others go. I gave everything to close the gap to the leader at that moment. I came very close but just failed to close the gap completely. The competition was able to take advantage of the situation that arose. With a few challenging stages, there is still a lot to fight for."

The following day, he appeared for a brief explanation to the press not far from the Spanish border. "It was a tough ride, but unfortunately, I got into a difficult situation. That's how it goes sometimes in cycling, and I tried to make the best of it. I managed to limit the losses, so that's good. My legs were good, but tactically, it wasn't great," continued the Dane, thus supporting the analysis of sports director Arthur van Dongen.  

The press was expecting a statement from Visma | Lease a Bike’s leader after the stage, but Vingegaard ultimately decided not to appear. Kuss, however, gave a brief reaction as a rider from the Dutch team. "We had to be in a good position going into the penultimate climb from the descent, but that was already tough for me," he admitted.

"I just didn’t have the legs," the honest American explained. "What this means for the rest of the week? I don’t know. Today was today, and now we have two sprint stages and a time trial coming up. It’s definitely a good race to get back into the rhythm. When the race is as hard as it was today, that happens automatically. You have to push yourself and suffer to stay with the group. It was a tough day."