Pedersen makes bold claim after watching Vingegaard in the Dauphiné: "I’ll just say it..."

An acceleration on terrain that should not suit Vingegaard, but the Dane still set the race alight on Sunday. Explosive, powerful, relentless... The two-time Tour winner gave it his all and ensured that Tadej Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel, and Mathieu van der Poel could sprint for the first yellow jersey. It ultimately went to the Slovenian world champion, who narrowly beat Vingegaard.

The cycling world had seen something it certainly hadn't expected, leading to much discussion. "I think Vingegaard is even more the moral winner than Pogacar. I thought it was fantastic. He was the one who attacked and formed the leading group, whereas, in previous years, he would have concentrated on staying with Pogacar. Now, he attacked himself. You only do that when you're feeling good," said Thijs Zonneveld enthusiastically.

The Eurosport analysts also looked on in amazement at a kind of ‘new’ Vingegaard. "I don't know what's happening with Vingegaard, but he's confidently riding around. He's friendly in interviews and riding well, attacking and sprinting. There's something positive about him," observed Jan Hermsen. "It's also smart to show Pogacar at moments like this that he can sprint and has trained for it. ‘Watch out,’ he's basically saying. He's also giving the reporters something to talk about now, so he can tell them during the Tour that he's taking more rest,” added Bobbie Traksel.

Someone who probably knows the Dane from Visma | Lease a Bike even better than the analysts mentioned above is Mads Pedersen. Vingegaard also left his compatriot from Lidl-Trek speechless on Sunday, Pedersen said in the podcast Lang Distance. "It was an insane stage. It was good to see. Great to see Jonas back. He's entering Pogacar's territory, so Tadej might not have expected this," said the winner of the purple jersey in the recent Giro d'Italia.

Pedersen saw that Pogacar was also quite shocked by the explosive Vingegaard. “You can see that Tadej has time to think: "What on earth is happening here? What is this?’ He didn’t close that gap as easily as he might have thought. You could see him fighting to close that gap. Amazing Jonas. Amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing."

Despite his efforts, Vingegaard was ultimately beaten in the sprint, although that was by no means a disaster for Pedersen. "He has everything to gain and nothing to lose. Imagine if he had won the stage... You wouldn't have believed it with that group. Crazy, genius. Even though they didn't win a second."

After seeing his compatriot's effort, Pedersen dared to make a bold statement. "I'll just say it: Jonas will win the Tour," he said confidently.