EPA
NOS Wielrennen•vandaag, 22:58
The lead was more than 7.5 minutes, but in team car 2 of Jumbo-Visma it was completely silent all day during the penultimate stage of the Tour de France. Fear that it would all go wrong through some intervention of higher powers.
“Phew, it was exciting, wasn’t it”, sporting director Merijn Zeeman puffed afterwards. “Only fate can break it.” He could hardly keep the doomsday scenarios out of his head. “It is important to keep out all the wrong thoughts.”
“During the day the tension grabs everyone. I don’t think we said a word in the second car today. It’s just super exciting when you can win such a big race.”
Zeeman even with a large margin Vingegaard from the tension: ‘Not a word was said in the car’
And yes, it could have gone wrong just like that, according to the nasty crashes of Carlos Rodriguez, number four in the rankings, and Jumbo superman Sepp Kuss, who reached the finish of the twentieth stage bleeding profusely.
Or by an odd fan, such as a man who crossed the final climb just before the three front runners Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar and Felix Gall and almost crashed into the yellow and white jersey. Dylan van Baarle still presented himself as a kind of battering ram, just missing out on a fan who was very much in the way.
“People are standing in the middle of the road. We all know what has already happened this Tour, so you better remind them in time to pull over.”
‘Confirmation’
Anyway, in all nervousness and despite a 7.5 minute lead, yellow jersey wearer Vingegaard remained unharmed. The Jumbo leader brings the yellow to Paris on Sunday and the Dutch cycling team Jumbo-Visma and a Dane with super legs win the Tour de France for the second time in a row.
Summary of stage 20: Pogacar beats Vingegaard, Pinot gets a nice farewell
“A confirmation”, Zeeman mainly calls it. A confirmation that the plan will also work in 2023 after the victory in 2022, one of building a strong team, in which all riders, including those of the caliber Wout van Aert, show complete dedication to the yellow jersey.
The squad, the squad, the squad. Ask Vingegaard what the reason is behind his second Tour victory in a row and he says: the team. Saturday again. “I couldn’t have done this without my fantastic team. They were there for me every day. They’ve done such a good job over the past three weeks. I’m really happy for all of us.”
With ‘she’ Vingegaard meant Van Aert, Kuss, Tiesj Benoot, Nathan van Hooydonck and Christophe Laporte. And one in two Dutch debutants in the Tour team of Jumbo-Visma: national champion Van Baarle, as a locomotive on (especially) the flat, and Wilco Kelderman, as a strong and loyal wagon in the climbing train.
“From the start we were very good at it. My first Tour with Jumbo-Visma and then being able to do it right away, that gives a lot of confidence for the rest,” said Van Baarle in the finish place Le Markstein.
Kelderman is relieved that it worked. “I don’t want to say it’s a dream, but it’s the highest achievable: winning the Tour with the team and dominating it as a team. A great feeling.”
All the stress of three weeks at the Tour gave way to pride for Zeeman after the finish. “Yes, now we can say that it has indeed arrived. I think it is very special that we have managed to win the Tour twice, but also to have won the Vuelta three times. And now also the Giro. A great list, I am very proud of that.”
Cool Dane
And one man remained oh so cool under all the Tour madness, the man who also had to stay cool: Vingegaard. “I had the feeling that there was less pressure than last year. We hadn’t won it then. Now we do”, the Dane analyzed. “If I hadn’t won now, we could always say when we retired that we won it once.”
Now, as pensioners, they can say they’ve won it twice.
In the press room after the penultimate stage, Vingegaard caught up with Tom Dumoulin:
Dumoulin and Vingegaard, who throws NOS microphone in waste bin, catch up
2023-07-22 20:58:22
#Stress #turns #pride #JumboVisma #Tour #arrived
