Vingegaard confident about Vuelta victory, but admits: "That stage doesn’t suit me"

The 28-year-old Dane has a 48-second lead over Almeida, with the rest of the competition already further behind. Third-placed Tom Pidcock is already 2.38 minutes behind, fourth-placed Jai Hindley is 3.10 minutes behind, and Felix Gall is another 20 seconds behind the Australian.

This means we are likely to see an exciting man-to-man battle in the third week, although Vingegaard is confident that he will emerge victorious. “I believe 100 percent that I can do it. We have a very strong team and I feel that I am improving all the time,” he said in an interview with Danish TV2.

The Visma | Lease a Bike star has already won two stages, laying the foundation for his 48-second lead. “I've had a few good days so far, but there have also been some less good days, if you can put it that way. I still believe that I will improve in this Vuelta,” he said, looking ahead to what is yet to come.

The fact that Vingegaard's competitor from the UAE camp is Almeida is, of course, something the Dane has to get used to. In the grand tours of recent years, it was mainly Tadej Pogacar who provided the competition, and Vingegaard realizes that things are a little different now. “Pogacar isn't here. That makes it a little easier in a way.”

The Visma | Lease a Bike leader is therefore racing a little differently than he might be used to. “When Pogacar is there, you have to try to find a weak spot in him almost every day. When he's not there, it's a different race.”

In his quest for overall victory, day eighteen will be crucial, as the riders will take part in a time trial in and around Valladolid. In time trials where Vingegaard and Almeida both appeared at the start, the score is four to three in favor of the Portuguese rider. “It's exciting and it really depends on the day,” the Dane says, looking ahead to Thursday.

“He (Almeida, ed.) is also a very good time trialist and an outstanding rider in general,” Vingegaard continues. “I think I'll mainly focus on myself and try to do as well as possible, but time trials don't really suit me,” he admits.

That's because it resembles a copy of the time trial from the 2023 Vuelta. “We rode almost the same one two years ago, but it didn't go so well then,” Vingegaard recalls. At that time, the Dane finished tenth in the stage and lost quite a bit of time to the competition. “I hope I can ride a better time trial this year.”