Visma–Lease a Bike’s rider Jonas Vingegaard launched an impressive comeback after a fall, yet won first place at the second stage of the Vuelta a España, a tough mountain stage of the tournament. With this, Vingegaard proved that he is a favourite in this race, now that Tadek Pogacar is not participating, and stepped onto the podium stage after defeating Giulio Ciccone in a sprint.
This win is memorable because Vingegaard’s setback involved a big crash that included some of his Visma-Lease a Bike teammates. The athlete had to leave the road because of this unfortunate event, but he came back to the peloton with only a scraped left elbow. Eventually, Vingegaard won the fast sprint on the challenging climb.
After his win, Vingegaard said: “It’s been a while since my last victory, I’m super happy with how I felt and how the team did today. Also, super happy to have the red jersey.”
Highlights of the race
At the start of the race, Vingegaard was going with the flow of the peloton while Gal Glivar, Jakub Otruba, Liam Slock, and Sinuhe Fernandez broke away and built a two-minute lead on mostly flat roads.
Rain made the roads slippery. Martin-Guyonnet crashed on a downhill and had to quit, making him the first rider to exit. Later in the race, Vingegaard was also involved in a crash but managed to continue.
He explained, “I went down pretty hard, but it seems like I didn’t hurt myself too bad. I have a bit of bruises, but I think because it was so slippery, I was sliding more so I didn’t really get any bad road rash or anything.”
Meanwhile, the early breakaway riders in the race were caught in the last few kilometres. Vingegaard beat Ciccone in the final sprint to win. Jasper Philipsen from Belgium kept the green jersey for leading the points classification.
On social media, netizens expressed their support for the cyclist. One comment stated: “Come on Jonas you are a champion you can do it 💪”
Another netizen declared that his performance was unbelievable even after his fall.
More netizens remarked: “The best in the world 😍”, “What a team 🔥”, and “Greetings champion my respects ❤️ ❤️”
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Vuelta a España’s first stages are taking place in Northern Italy. Then the tournament will move across the border into France for the fourth stage. The race then goes to Spain — not including the southern part — and will end with the final stage in Madrid.
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