'I have no explanation' - Jonas Vingegaard suffers significant time losses in Tour de France time trial

Dane loses more than a minute in stage in Caen as Tadej Pogačar takes yellow jersey

Jonas VIngegaard time trial at the Tour de France
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Visma-Lease a Bike began stage five of the Tour de France hungry to hit back at Tadej Pogačar, after the Slovenian struck an early psychological blow the day before in Rouen.

But just hours later, the team were left aghast after their leader Jonas Vingegaard shipped more than a minute to Pogačar. That wasn't in the script.

Vingegaard had started the race in impressive style, matching Pogačar's accelerations on the steep finishing circuit on stage four, but he appeared to struggle in the Normandy heat and the time loss soon tallied up.

"I have no explanation," Visma DS, Grischa Niermann, said at the finish. "Before the time trial everything was good, there were no problems, but in the time trial he’s not able to talk to me, and I'm only able to talk to him.

How does the result alter the team's strategy in the forthcoming days? “It changes nothing in our overall approach,” Niermann added. "We just go ahead as planned but we're around 1:20 down on Tadej now [1:13 - ed], so we will have to find that time somewhere if Jonas wants to win the Tour. We didn’t expect that much of a loss. It happened though, we have to deal with it and we’ll fight again tomorrow."

Thank you for reading 20 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Join now for unlimited access

Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

Tom Thewlis
News and Features Writer

After previously working in higher education, Tom joined Cycling Weekly in 2022 and hasn't looked back. He's been covering professional cycling ever since; reporting on the ground from some of the sport's biggest races and events, including the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix and the World Championships. His earliest memory of a bike race is watching the Tour on holiday in the early 2000's in the south of France - he even made it on to the podium in Pau afterwards. His favourite place that cycling has taken him is Montréal in Canada.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.