Jonas Vingegaard closes out the Tour of Catalonia by winning it
Jonas Vingegaard, rider of the Visma-Lease a Bike team, won the Tour of Catalonia, while the seventh and final stage, held in Barcelona, was won in a sprint by Australian Brady Gilmore (NSN Cycling Team). In the general classification, the 29-year-old Danish rider finished ahead of Frenchman Lenny Martinez and German Florian Lipowitz. Fresh off his success at Paris-Nice two weeks ago, Vingegaard thus picks up the baton from Slovenian Primoz Roglic in the Catalan race’s roll of honor.
“I focused mainly on the general classification and not on the stage win,” he emphasized. “It has been a fantastic week, I am happy with this remarkable start to the season and I hope to continue like this. The two-time Tour de France winner is expected to make his Giro d’Italia debut in just over a month.
The Catalan week, however, did not pass without a few tense moments. In the third stage, from Mont-roig del Camp to Vila-seca, Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel had attempted a tandem attack in the finale, but a pothole in the asphalt had betrayed the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Belgian, who was forced into a nasty crash. The Dane had chosen not to take advantage, waiting for the peloton to return, a gesture that nevertheless had not been enough to appease his rival’s criticism: “The collaboration with Vingegaard? Fantastic…,” Evenepoel had commented in a sarcastic tone, complaining that his breakaway companion had merely stood by him without actively collaborating. “I saw him flying away, I hope he’s okay and can continue the race,” Vingegaard had replied. “At that point I thought it was unfair to take advantage of that situation. Remco not happy with my attitude in the breakaway? That’s what cycling is too, everyone has to follow their own tactics.”
The success in Catalonia represents another step on the road to the Giro d’Italia, Vingegaard’s primary goal in the first part of the season. The Dane had announced in January his first participation in the Corsa Rosa, scheduled for May 8-31, with a stated ambition to add the pink jersey to his collection, which already includes two Tour de France (2022 and 2023) and the Vuelta de España won last September. “I would like to add the pink jersey to my collection,” the Visma-Lease rider told Bike at the time, who is aiming to become the ninth cyclist in history to achieve the Giro-Tour double in the same year.
If he succeeds in the feat, Vingegaard would also join the very small club of winners of all three Grand Tours, an elite made up so far of only seven riders-Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali and Chris Froome. A goal the Dane has chosen to chase by altering his traditional preparation schedule. “For the last five years my schedule before the Tour has been more or less the same. This time I chose to do things differently. The Giro route is perhaps less challenging than in recent years, which makes the transition to the Tour more favorable,” he had explained.
