Jonas Vingegaard’s teammate Victor Campenaerts was just one of many members of the VIsma-Lease a Bike staff and riders celebrating at the summit of Colombier le Vieux after the Danish leader simultaneously sealed his second stage win in as many days and took a massive down payment on overall victory in Paris-Nice this weekend.
After abandoning Paris-Nice last year following a heavy crash which had already seen him out of the lead, Vingegaard’s latest stage victory has reconfirmed he is in a very different scenario 12 months on – just when the team needed it most.
Already on Wednesday, when he won at Uchon after dropping Dani Martínez (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) late on, there was talk of how Vingegaard’s success had given Visma a huge boost to their morale after their very uneven start to the season. Then, to judge by the hugs and smiles amongst the Visma camp after stage 5, with Vingegaard confirmed as ruling supreme, that collective morale has now lifted even higher.
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Teammate Victor Campenaerts then paid tribute to his leader at the finish on a day when he had himself, as Vingegaard said, played a crucial role, both getting in the early break of eight, then finding the strength to launch Vingegaard on the Côte de Saint-Muzols
Campenaerts, too, explained how the day had unfolded for Visma-Lease a Bike, which culminated, as he graphically – but 100% correctly – put it, with the moment when “Killer Jonas destroyed everybody.”
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