For all the questions over his performance in Tuesday’s time trial at the Giro d’Italia, you’d think that Jonas Vingegaard had a total shocker, an out-of-character performance, and shipped loads of time on GC.
Commentators were calling it a disaster, a surprising loss, a poor sign of things to come in his GC campaign. But is any of that right at all, or is it just hyperbole?
In reality, Vingegaard took on a 42km, pan-flat time trial – not the kind of TT that would ever suit him, nor has he excelled in before – and did better than 90% of his GC rivals, cutting a whole two minutes out of his deficit to the pink jersey.
They’re also riders who have yet to come close to Vingegaard’s climbing ability so far in this Giro, so does it really matter if he loses time to them in a TT? It’s not like there’s another TT coming where there might be more time losses – that was the only one. The only rider who has looked to rival Vingegaard on the climbs, Felix Gall, lost a minute and a half on Tuesday.
But despite this truth, there was a lot of questioning over what this performance meant for Vingegaard, whether he was severely off the pace, not going well in this Giro, even that it was a sign he might struggle to win the overall – despite being 1:30 clear of his nearest GC rivals. (There were also plenty of comments and reactions disagreeing with these takes, and doing exactly what I’m doing here, contextualising and being realistic about Vingegaard’s ride.)
Now, the reaction to Tuesday’s stage was not a first in this Giro; Vingegaard has been questioned on his supposed lack of dominance since he came to this race. It’s true that he arrived as the…
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