Interview with Vingegaard’s wife is hot topic in Denmark, but the Visma Dane responds cool: "I didn't read it"

A typical Tour de France day for Vingegaard: before the stage, he, like the rest of the peloton, was stuck in traffic for an hour and a half before the start in the tiny village of Lauwin-Planque, meaning he couldn’t give any interviews at that time. Then came the longest stage of the race over twisting northern French roads, followed by a swarm of media and fans afterwards.

The stoic Dane first had to face the Danish press, who naturally had plenty of questions about the explosive interview his wife Trine gave to Politiken. In it, Visma | Lease a Bike took quite a beating, though sporting director Grischa Niermann already downplayed it at the team bus. “It was taken out of context,” he claimed.

“I know Trine supports me 100 percent and that she’ll do everything to make sure I can perform at my best. She only wants the best for me,” Vingegaard told TV2. “I haven’t really read the article, I’ve just heard something about it. So I’m not 100 percent sure what it says. I don’t read the media during the Tour, so it’s hard for me to comment on it.”

Trine had criticized the amount of time Vingegaard spends away from home. “Of course there are a lot of training camps and altitude camps throughout the year, so it’s definitely tough on family life. But I’m still racing, so I’m not burned out yet,” the Dane responded.

On the bike, Vingegaard and Visma | Lease a Bike showed they had everything under control, almost everything. “We wanted to go for Wout van Aert, but he didn’t have the legs to make an impact. Then we decided to switch focus and ride for me and Matteo Jorgenson. In the end, it was a pretty good day, even though we would have loved to win with Wout. Knowing he wasn’t there, this was the maximum we could do.”

In the final kilometers, Vingegaard launched an attack himself, while Jorgenson also showed his strength with a few digs. But UAE Emirates-XRG kept things under control for their leader Tadej Pogacar, leading to a sprint between the big names, where Vingegaard had to settle for third.

No shame at all, considering this isn’t his terrain. “I’ve done two bunch sprints now, so I guess I’m a bit of a sprinter,” he joked. “I’ve never finished third on a finish like this before, so it’s a really good result for me, especially because I finished behind two guys who are world-class on these types of finishes.”

“Mathieu van der Poel was the strongest. Tadej tried, but Mathieu was better. I can feel that I’ve become more explosive,” confirmed Vingegaard, who had already mentioned before the Tour that he’d added a few kilos of muscle to his slim frame.

And so the two-time winner ticks off another day in this Tour. “It’s really hectic like this, starting with these kinds of stages. For me personally, the last two editions were better when we began with tough mountain stages. Now it’s just causing all of us a lot of stress,” said Vingegaard, who saw Simon Yates lose more time again.