20-year-old Jarno Widar ecstatic with 2nd place in the Vuelta mountains: 'Took me a while to find my rhythm'

For those who didn’t know: Jarno Widar is more than living up to his reputation as a super talent. The barely 20-year-old Belgian from Lotto-Intermarché held his own against the big names in the first mountain stage of the Vuelta a España. He crossed the finish line in Andorra in second place, winning the reduced bunch sprint, nearly three minutes behind a rampant Tadej Pogačar.

The Sporza team was waiting for their compatriot at the finish line. “It felt pretty good,” Widar said with a touch of understatement. “At first, though, it took me a while to find my rhythm. When ‘Pogi’ made his move, I decided to stick to my own pace. That’s how I was able to make a comeback.”

"After that, I really struggled on the Coll d'Ordino. It was hard to find my rhythm," the Belgian said, referring to the penultimate climb of the day, where he briefly fell behind along with Richard Carapaz and Mattias Skjelmose. "But then we caught up on the descent, and I knew those final little climbs suited me better."

"I'm not a pure climber, more of a puncher," Widar repeats what he said before the Vuelta a España. "So for my weight, I do have a bit of a sprint in me. Although I knew I'd have to come up from behind at speed, because it was a sweeping turn."

Widar was ecstatic to finish second in such an elite group. “I’m very proud of myself and, at the same time, very honored to be able to race here. This is a childhood dream. What’s next? I’m going to take it day by day. And if I feel good, I hope to achieve a result like this again,” he says, keeping his expectations in check.

The Lotto-Intermarché team leader is now ninth in the general classification because he lost a relatively large amount of time in the time trial. In the battle for the young rider's jersey, he is in second place, 21 seconds behind Oscar Onley.