Vingegaard crushes rivals in Dauphiné

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) waved au revoir to the rest of the peloton today.

In a dominating performance on stage 5 of the Critérium du Dauphiné, the Dane put big time into everyone and leads the GC by over a minute.

When Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost) attacked on the category 2 Côte de Thésywith climb with 17 kilometers to go, Vingegaard jumped on his wheel and then simply rode away. The gap went out to 40 seconds and never went back down. He rode into Salins-les-Bains with total command of the race.

Vingegaard was faster uphill, faster on the rolling flats and faster on the descents. The man showed no fear, using all the road and taking risk he didn’t even need to take in the corners.

The chase group looked resigned and uncommitted. While UAE and Adam Yates attempted to cut the deficit, there seemed to be a collective recognition that Vingegaard was far superior. In fact, whether out of boredom or simply to rev the engine, Egan Bernal (Ineos-Grenadiers) was the only rider to put in an attack. He got a small gap, then faded, but bonus points for trying, Egan.

What made it all the more impressive was that Vingegard had no plans to tear the race apart. “No actually. I didn’t want to attack today. I just wanted to defend myself,” he said post stage. “I was working with Richard (Carapaz – ed) and then he couldn’t follow anymore.”

That was the over-riding theme for the day, for everyone — nobody couldn’t follow anymore. Vingegaard showed that he is on exceptional form and ready to battle Tadej Pogacar in the Tour de France.

With a bit of nordic understatement, Vingegaard gave his take on the race. “I think I’m in good shape and I can be happy with where I am now,” he said. “I didn’t’ expect to be in the jersey. Hopefully now I can keep it the next few days.”

Vingegaard now has 1:10 on Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën), 1:26 on Adam Yates (UAE) and 1:37 on Jai Hindley (BORA-Hansgrohe). Hope springs eternal for professional athletes who never say die, but after today, it appears their chances of winning are on life support.