Vingegaard and Jorgensen outraged afer restart in Paris-Nice: "Everyone was frozen, no one could feel their brakes"

With a pale face but still wearing the yellow leader’s jersey, Vingegaard addressed the press. "I have mixed feelings today," he admitted, before immediately correcting himself. "No, not mixed feelings. I’m just not really happy right now because, in my opinion, we should never have raced the final. We should never have continued, but it happened anyway." Paris-Nice was struck by stormy weather, leading organizers to neutralize the race. After a short period of racing, the riders were stopped again.

In recent months, many races have been stopped entirely due to dangerous conditions, but that wasn’t the case this time, according to the Dane. "It wasn’t necessarily dangerous, but we rode more than 10, 12 kilometers at an extremely slow pace. Everyone was frozen, no one could feel their brakes. We had about 5 to 10 minutes to warm up again, but that wasn’t enough. I still don’t have warmth in my body—I’m still cold. But of course, the weather affected everyone."

Despite the freezing temperatures, Vingegaard still managed to ride one hell of a race. He managed to break away from his rivals in the final kilometers, only to be caught at the last moment by winner João Almeida. Still, there were plenty of positives to take away for the upcoming stages. "We worked really well together on the final climb. We managed to counter the attacks as a team, and I felt pretty good, so I had the freedom to go for it. Unfortunately, I got caught in the last 25 meters, but that’s cycling."

Matteo Jorgenson lost his leader’s jersey, although he managed to stay with the best riders. However, the American was completely frozen. "I don’t know if it affected me more than others, but it was an internal rollercoaster," he said after the race. "I was warm and focused during the race, and then it started hailing." At that point, the race was neutralized, but according to Visma | Lease a Bike’s co-leader, it was poorly handled. "They stopped us, and we could put on dry clothes and extra jackets. It was raining heavily, and we stopped at the coldest moment."

Jorgenson took some time to recover at the team car, but suddenly, the race resumed. "There was no explanation. I was at the back near the car when I suddenly saw the red race director’s car drive off. I jumped back on my bike and had to chase for 10 kilometers. When I finally made it back, they stopped us again. And then, they decided to restart the race. It was up and down—a real shock to the body."

The second neutralization was even worse: the race leader became even more frozen. By the time the riders were allowed to start racing again, Jorgenson was completely chilled. "It was incredibly difficult to warm my body back up. I was breathing deeply—it felt like a really stressful rollercoaster. On the final climb, I fought with whatever legs I had, but I didn’t really feel in control." In the end, Jorgenson finished sixth, crossing the line six seconds behind stage winner João Almeida.

Still, Jorgenson managed to take something positive from the completely chaotic third stage. "If you take away the performance aspect, we actually played our tactics quite well. Jonas was very smart and managed to refocus more than I did. In the end, João was the strongest—and clearly the warmest—in the group. He was incredibly strong, so congrats to him." The damage in the overall standings is also limited: Jorgenson is still second in the GC. "That’s great. I think we just need to reset and warm up again. Jonas and I will have more control in the next stages, with more teammates around us. We lost a lot of them in the chaos of the neutralization. In the end, it was just him and me, but we played it well."