Bruyneel thinks impressive Vingegaard has another goal besides the red jersey: "That happens more often in the Vuelta"

After his victory at the first mountain finish, Vingegaard was again impressive by finishing third in the difficult third stage. Normally, you would not expect the climber to be among the very best there. Bruyneel sees it as a sign of things to come. “Of course, he feels great,” he says in the podcast THEMOVE. “He won yesterday and is back among the leaders today: you have to be in good shape for that. And every second counts. I'm not surprised.”

The activity of the two-time Tour winner could be seen as worrying: in the Giro d'Italia, Bruyneel urged the GC contenders to take it easy, saying that every effort would be paid for later. “In the case of Jonas Vingegaard in this Vuelta, I'm not worried,” says the Belgian. “He's just so much better than his rivals. It just doesn't matter that much.”

The main rivals normally come from UAE Team Emirates - XRG, but in stages 2 and 3, João Almeida and Juan Ayuso were virtually invisible. They were particularly far back on Monday. "In my opinion, they were too far back, which is not a good sign. Normally, you have to finish tenth or fifteenth. Bernal, for example, was riding in the top 10. It was a bit more difficult than expected, but they were too far behind. They took a risk; they could easily lose 10 seconds here."

Vingegaard feels good, that's for sure. He was even seen in an intermediate sprint, where he managed to collect quite a few points. It may be evidence of a secret goal. "Did he think there were bonus seconds? The only other explanation is that he also wants to win the points classification. It can happen, and it happens more often in the Vuelta than in other Grand Tours, where classification riders also win the points jersey. It's early in the race, but it didn't cost him much energy."

In addition to the Vuelta a España, there is also a lot of news surrounding Israel-Premier Tech. Derek Gee announced his intention to leave, despite a long-term contract. Both the team and the rider remain rather secretive about the circumstances. “I guess he wants to play the Israel card,” said the former team manager. “I don't know if it's true, but you can probably use it if you want to get out of your contract.”

Jakob Fuglsang also rode for the Israeli team for a long time, but retired from cycling earlier this month. Just a few days after his retirement, he expressed his relief: a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. “It's obviously more pleasant to ride without the Israel logo than with it,” said the Dane. But Bruyneel thinks it's hypocritical. “Israel pays well. When the riders could sign big deals, it didn't matter what was on their chest, as long as they were receiving their paychecks.”

Moreover, the Belgian believes that you have to separate the team from the situation in the Gaza Strip. “Everyone has a free choice to join that team. It makes me laugh when they say they don't want to wear the name, but when they were riding there, they had no problem putting on the jersey, as long as the money kept coming in.”