Visma | Lease a Bike and Vingegaard explain the story behind the ‘strip-bibs’ after a night of laughter

Vingegaard made a huge step towards overall victory in the Race to the Sun by staying sharp in the crosswinds, avoiding the crashes on a chaotic day, and then following the decisive move when Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe launched a strong coup late on. On the final climb, he rode his last rivals off his wheel to take the stage win and pull on the yellow jersey.

A brilliant ride — but seeing Vingegaard finish with long bib tights still on, and the straps worn over his rain jacket, brought plenty of smiles. In his flash interview, Vingegaard was the first to grin broadly. He even called himself “a trendsetter”. “There was no time to take them off,” he joked, referring to the full-length bibs that sat rather loosely around his upper body.

After all the laughter, Visma | Lease a Bike also offered a more practical explanation for the unusual finish outfit via social media.

“I wore the extra-long bibs to keep myself warm in the early part of the stage,” Vingegaard explained. “We had them adapted so that two teammates could simply pull them off. Then I could take them off later like leg warmers. That was the plan.”

The problem: only Edoardo Affini was still with Vingegaard in the echelon chaos, so between the lack of time and a lack of hands, there was no moment to get the bibs off. And so he kept them on all the way to the finish.

On Thursday, ahead of stage 5, the sun was out — and Vingegaard was back in short bibs, with the leader’s jersey draped over his shoulders in the start-area selfie posted by Paris–Nice.

“I was just doing everything not to get cold, and I think it was smart to cut them so I could take them off,” Vingegaard said at the start of stage 5, speaking to the organisers. “But the Red Bull guys had other plans, so it just wasn’t possible. That’s cycling, and I’m happy I kept them on. It kept me nice and warm.”

At Sporza, teammate Victor Campenaerts also weighed in with a smile. The Belgian had helped Vingegaard in the days before stage 4 by removing the chamois, and everything seemed perfectly prepared. “I could have really helped with that strip act,” Campenaerts laughed. “That would have been spectacular and would have made the performance shine even more. But fortunately Jonas didn’t have cold legs.”

vin