Vingegaard, inexplicable performances at the Tour: “Have doubts” – Corriere.it

A sprinter takes to the track and suddenly lowers the 100m world record from 9″58 to 9″20. A cross-country skier brings the marathon record to one hour and 57′, a Tamberi jumps two meters and 50 high. And at the end of the stellar feat, to the astonished journalists, he says: I was just flying today.”

Flying very high, yesterday afternoon Jonas Vingegaard killed the Tour de France with a time trial performance that cannot be interpreted with the criteria of physiology – not with those known to us, at least -, a bit like the 8 meters and 90 by Bob Beamon in Mexico City, where at least one important role was played by high ground.

Inexplicable for the postings, firstly: 1’38” in 22 kilometers to Tadej Pogacar and 2’51” to Wout Van Aert, the two best specialists in the world, both in top form: the 4-5” difference per kilometer is unprecedented in modern cycling. Inexplicable to the average, 41.2 km per hour on a deadly course for which the the technicians’ most optimistic table predicted 39 km/h and for having run the entire stage on a time trial bike, heavy and not very performing on the very steep sections (Pogacar in fact changed it), in which the Dane still managed to unleash absurd powers. Vingegaard went so fast that ten colleagues risked being excluded for running out of time: one (Alexis Renard) was pardoned by the judges.

Arrived at the finish line destroyed, Pogacar did not utter a word for long minutes while Van Aertwho is a companion and friend of the yellow jersey, smiled explaining that «Jonas has done something incredible, indeed impossibleand I am very happy to be the first in the ranking of humans ».

Half an hour after his show, the phenomenal Dane tried to be more convincing: «In the first stretch I looked at the computer on the handlebar and I thought it was broken, they didn’t say anything from the flagship. When in front I glimpsed the flagship of Pogacar (left two minutes earlier, ed) I understood that I was doing something extraordinary». Yes, but how to explain such a heavy gap inflicted on a rival who had expressed the exact same values ​​for 15 days? Jonas again: «At Jumbo we prepared the time trial meticulously, dividing it into four parts, each faced with a different tactic and a different head. It was crazy work.”

The result is crazy: Pogacar, who had 10”, crashed at 1’48”, Adam Yates is third after almost nine minutes.

Is the tour over? Never say never, even if pessimism prevails. Today’s stage is the toughest of the race, with four mountain grands prix in rapid succession and the final climb in Courchevel, which frightens with its 34 km up there where oxygen is becoming increasingly scarce and the slopes steeper. If Pogacar manages to recover from the shock and fatigue, it’s hard to imagine that his wounded ego doesn’t lead him to try a mad blow (“It was tough but I won’t give up” said the Slovenian), i.e. the escape from afar in which play it all out. For a Martian like him, a second place (bis of 2022) born of such a burning defeat is a deep wound in pride.

Yesterday in the press room the words spoken by Vingegaard came back very topical last Saturday: “I understand and justify those who are skeptical on my performance: I’m going really fast. Having doubts is important: it prevents that cycling falls back on the mistakes of the pastself-destructing. Have it on me as well.” We must therefore be skeptical of a performance that goes beyond the limits set by physiologists. But we have no way or elements or indiscretions to be able to say that Jonas Vingegaard is cheating and is not an absolute champion who is changing the history of cycling. Let’s hope we’re not wrong.