@tomdanielson As much as I love Jonas it isn’t his numbers, that will break a scary UAE team. It’s a mental thing. Pogacar can be broken mentally. And TVL have done it before. Hell, they were close in 2025. Jonas uncharacteristically had two bad days.
Now that was a dynamic stage 6 of the Volta Catalunya! Here are seven takeaways I have after watching it (from the couch, of course).
1. Jonas Super Strong and Not Riding All Out
For me, he looks very Tadej 2024 (although he was some 18 seconds faster today than Tadej's time), doing races he can win and winning without going outside of the zones and timing his winning efforts like a workout, not overreaching. I think this both gives him confidence and is building his body stronger in the races without breaking it down. He can't control the level Tadej is at, but he sure is controlling the level he is at, and that seems to be the best one yet.
@tomdanielson So Jonas is using the hardest stage race this year(until now) as a training ride, while the others a competing hard for the win. That speaks to a level of dominance, that is close to Pogacar.
@bapmarbims40372@cycloben2 The others were legit impressed because of the strong headwind. Everyone’s watts looked less than stellar yesterday. Skjelmose was in awe. Looking at pure watts without context in stupid.
I’d be brave enough to say that Jonas Vingegaard is in better shape than he has been at any point since the spring of 2024. Paris-Nice might have seemed like an outlier due to the weak startlist, but here he’s actually put a really solid performance at a relatively high altitude and at a high-level race.
Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean there will be an actual battle at the Tour, but he may have once again closed the gap to Tadej Pogacar within the margin of error - this is the threshold within which (should Pogacar make one major or two minor mistakes, such as poor nutrition or struggling with the weather, or his team being too depleted) Jonas might have a chance to hunt him down. This is still only 10–15% at most, but it’s twice as much as it would have been a month ago.
#VoltaCatalunya
@cycletips123 Jeg tror, at jeg er gået under radaren. Det bliver næsten koldkrigsspionage at scrolle hans (elendige) takes igennem, som dansk cykelfan.
@sideandaprayer@BohunickaNikola Still don’t see why a GC rider and grimpeur should ride the classics. I mean maybe LBL or Lombardia. Just as I don’t expect MVDP to compete in the mountains in a grand tour.
@sideandaprayer@BohunickaNikola I don’t know who I’m less interested in seeing in the classics: Almeida, gall, flipovich, Ayuso or vingegaard. Why on earth would they compete there?
@llireon@faustocoppi60 Yeah. He could have gone deeper to get another 30 seconds. But there is no reason to do that. Jonas is back! The giro will be boring(for some, not me) but a good Jonas make the Tour much more interesting.
⏱️ Jonas Vingegaard climbed today the stuning Coll de Pal (14,1 km@7,3%) in 37 min 50 sec, at 22.36 km/h. It wasn't a fast ascent by today's standards probably due to wind and or/slow first part by Ineos (also finish at 1950m altitude).
#VoltaCatalunya105
@Furious_n_fast I wouldn't pay too much attention to these estimations. Much more credible numbers for Coll de Pal are time gaps between riders.
Road surface of Bola del Mundo is rough concrete, not quite comparable to Coll de Pal.
@faustocoppi60 Tbf it looked like he controlled the effort and managed it instead of going all out in the last 2-3km tomorrow is also a MTF and there is no need to spend yourself completely
Virkelig imponerende af 🇩🇰 Vingegaard at sætte alle på plads på trods af at hans Visma-raket blev ødelagt af styrtet.
Man skal være en hel del bedre end konkurrenterne for at sætte dem allesammen fra hjul på den måde på en stigning med så meget vind.
@m_mundbjerg Han tog tid i modvind. Hvis etapen havde været længere, så havde han taget mere tid. Den her Jonas er den Jonas, som kan true Pog(som den eneste). Pog er stadig favorit. Men feltet har brug for Jonas.