One thousand and seventy seven days. That’s how much time has passed since Jonas Vingegaard last wore the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. But when he finally tried it on for size again in Barcelona on Saturday evening, after leading Visma-Lease a Bike to victory in the stage one team time trial, he found it still fitted him just fine.
Vingegaard stormed through the finish with eight seconds in hand over second-placed Filippo Ganna of Netcompany-Ineos, after his team pulled off a near-flawless TTT masterclass. Above all, though, he triumphed over Tadej Pogačar, his Tour de France nemesis and the defending champion that many consider near-unbeatable.
Vingegaard has worn yellow before – he is a double Tour winner, don’t forget – but it was clear that this jersey meant as much to him as it has ever done, and maybe more.
Describing it as a “dream come true”, he said: “Being back in the yellow jersey is for me the most important. I’m just extremely happy, it’s something I dreamt of for the last three years.
“It’s a dream for everyone in cycling, I think, and just to be wearing this jersey is something special, and I will enjoy every moment in it.”
Much has happened in Vingegaard’s career during those 1,077 days since he last wore it in Paris at the end of the 2023 Tour de France. Perhaps most significantly, a massive crash at Itzulia Basque Country in early 2024, which left him badly injured and, in the immediate aftermath, believing he might die. Being able to wear the maillot jaune once again, he said, provided a certain level of closure.
“I’ve struggled at times in the last few years,” he told journalists, “[but] now I feel like I can close this chapter in the book, if you can say it. Of course, it will always be a part of my book, laying there on the ground, believing that I’m going to die. And then coming from that to this point is also for me a bit emotional.”
Much as wearing yellow once more was a huge moment for Vingegaard, it wasn’t won in a straight fight between himself and Pogačar. Both riders were beholden to their team’s abilities against the clock, and while Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad were 13 seconds behind come the third and final time check, when both riders were unleashed up the final climb of Montjuïc, it was the Slovenian who prevailed. He was three seconds quicker than Vingegaard’s 1:26 and hence will wear the polka dots on stage two.
Vingegaard was acutely aware, he said, that his stage one victory was only the very beginning of a long three weeks. He is now a expecting a hard fight that will begin almost straight away.
“I think the next stage will already be very hard,” he said. “I think it’s just gonna be, from now on, fighting every single day to do the best possible, to be honest.”
Visma-Lease a Bike sports director Marc Reef emphasised that the team’s underlying goal was yellow in Paris, and that Vingegaard would not necessarily attempt to keep it in the immediate future.
“[Paris] is the goal; it’s not the goal to directly keep it, but of course when the chance is there it’s OK,” he said. “And of course tomorrow we have immediately another explosive stage; stage three is another explosive stage with an uphill finish… We’ll see day by day – we’re happy with the situation we’re in. We have a small gap over our opponents but in the first place we’re happy with this win.”
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