According to Riis, Vingegaard was wise not to accelerate: "If you blow up there, you won’t come back"

On the Alto del Angliru, Almeida applied serious pressure. During the brutal climb, the Portuguese leader of UAE Team Emirates-XRG took the initiative, and Vingegaard could only sit on his wheel. A stage win wasn’t in the cards: he had to let his rival take it. On Saturday’s climb to La Farrapona, the red jersey wearer once again wasn’t able to make a big difference. He only picked up a few bonus seconds on Almeida.

But Riis sees that Vingegaard is managing his energy wisely. “If you want to make a difference on Angliru, you really need to have great legs,” the Dane explained in his column for BT. “And if Jonas didn’t have them, it was a very smart move to just stay in the wheels. If you blow up on the Angliru, you blow up hard, and you don’t come back. If he had doubts about his legs, he shouldn’t attack here.”

Some people wondered why Vingegaard didn’t try to ride away from Almeida on the Angliru. “But why didn’t Almeida attack?” said the 1996 Tour de France winner. “Yes, he rode at the front the whole way, but we didn’t see any change in pace. Sometimes it’s just too hard to launch an attack on such a steep climb. Accelerating can be risky.”

So while Vingegaard doesn’t necessarily look stronger than his rival when the going gets really tough, Riis still sees him as having the advantage. “I’m not really worried. He looks fine, but the lead isn’t comfortable, and there’s still a time trial to come. We can expect Almeida to be fast there. If they get that team under control, it could become dangerous for Jonas.”