Time trial aftermath at Visma | Lease a Bike: "We’re working hard behind the scenes"

Jorgenson finished eleventh in the stage results, while leader Vingegaard had to settle for thirteenth place and lost more than a minute to Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step). “My legs didn't feel good and the result reflects that, which is to be expected. I fought against my legs and the bike, but luckily the Tour de France is long and I still believe in myself and in our plan,” said Vingegaard.

Jorgenson was a little more revealing. “Looking at my watts and how I felt, I can only say that I gave it my all. I paced the time trial well and felt good technically. I didn’t lose any time in the corners, so it must have been an aerodynamic issue or a lack of power.”

At the start of stage six in Bayeux, sports director Niermann was able to provide some more insight. “Jonas was obviously very disappointed after the time trial, but he had a good night and we are ready to fight again. However, the time trial was not the day we had hoped for, that remains unchanged, said the German.

“We need to find 1.14 minutes somewhere,” said the sports director, referring to the time difference between Pogacar and Vingegaard. “That won’t be easy, but we still have the same goal and believe that Jonas can beat Tadej. How? We’ll see in the coming days and weeks, but of course we would have preferred not to have lost so much time.

“We don't know what caused it,” Niermann admits. “We are working hard behind the scenes with our people in the Performance department to find out. From the moment Jonas started the time trial, he felt he was struggling to reach his full potential. And that was also evident from the results. We would have liked to have seen a different outcome, but it is what it is.”

“The most annoying thing is that we lost time, but of course we also want to know what could have caused it,” he concludes.