Jonas Vingegaard was defiant after losing yet more time to Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel in stage seven’s individual time trial at the Tour de France.
The Dane fell further behind the current race leader, Pogačar, in the fight for the yellow jersey after finishing the race against the clock 37 seconds slower than Evenepoel, the stage winner in Gevrey-Chambertin.
Vingegaard now sits more one minute and 15 seconds down on Pogačar after beginning the day 50 seconds behind the Slovenian.
Despite the time loss, Vingegaard kept an optimistic attitude after the stage.
"To be honest I think it was a good time trial for me," the defending champion said. "I'm happy with my performance, and to only lose 37 seconds to Remco on a time trial that suits him pretty well is a pretty good result for me.
"I wouldn't say it's a big hit, rather the opposite actually. I expected to lose more time. It's a time trial that's way more favourable for him so it's good to only lose 25 seconds to him today.
"Last year I took seven and a half minutes in two stages, the power is there so we just have to believe in our plan."
Vingegaard repeated the same comments that he made before the race began in Italy, reiterating that he was happy just to be able to start the race at all after recovering from the punctured lung, fractured ribs and collarbone that he sustained in his terrible spring crash.
"Of course I have ambitions and I want to do well here, but anyway, what happens happens and I cannot change it," he said regarding his time loss.
"I think San Luca was the day I worried most about [before the race]. There I did not lose time and today I only lost 25 seconds on a course that suits Remco and Tadej much more than me. So I think to only lose 25 seconds is a good day for me today."
Visma-Lease a Bike DS Grischa Niermann echoed the same line as Vingegaard by the team bus after the stage, saying the plan remained to get the Dane on the podium at the end of the race.
"We knew that it wasn't a parcours for him," Niermann told Cycling Weekly, set to the backdrop of a local vineyard. "He did super-well and I think we have to be happy with that. I think he did a very good TT today."
"It's a great achievement that Jonas is at the start of the Tour de France," he added. "He's looking good, he’s feeling good, he’s confident and I don't think we could have hoped for more after seven days of racing.
"Of course the dream is still to win the Tour de France. Tadej Pogačar is looking extremely good, extremely strong and he has a strong team around him.
"It will be a hard task but once again everybody should be very, very happy that Jonas is here in France in the shape he is right now."
