Visma | Lease a Bike laugh off concerns about Vingegaard's potential time trial losses

Visma | Lease a Bike are completely relaxed about the fact that Jonas Vingegaard must ride a 42-kilometre time trial in stage 10 wearing the blue mountains jersey. The Dane earned the jersey with his stage win on Blockhaus on day seven, meaning he goes into the time trial with a one-point lead over second place in the category. At Visma | Lease a Bike, they simply shrug it off.

Thijs Zonneveld raised the topic after stage eight of the Giro on Saturday. In his podcast, the Dutch journalist suggested that wearing a race-issued jersey is a significant disadvantage. "It is quite a long time trial. Over 42 kilometres, I think it could cost around a minute," — a surprisingly bold prediction.

Confronted with that potential time loss, sports director Marc Reef started laughing before the stage nine start. "I don't know exactly how big the difference could be, and we of course have our own skinsuit that we've put a lot of work into. We've done a lot of testing, so you'd always prefer to ride in your own kit. But you have to take things as they are."

"I think it will make little difference," Reef continued. "We knew we could end up in a classification jersey, given the Blockhaus and the points and time you could earn there. If we hadn't wanted that, we shouldn't have gone for the stage win — but that's what we wanted. It has also brought us a time gain, so you take that and accept it."

Before stage nine, there was still a chance that Vingegaard could lose the blue jersey to Diego Pablo Sevilla of Polti VisitMalta — but: "If a break goes all the way to the finish and Sevilla is in it, he can still take the jersey. But we're not thinking about that. Besides, there are also KOM points at the top of the final climb, so if there's a battle between the leaders, you'll get those too," said Reef.

That is exactly how it played out. Sevilla was not even in the break, so we already knew before the final climb that Vingegaard would keep the mountains jersey. "Jonas is not sensitive to that kind of thing — he takes it as it is. That's the right way to approach it; you shouldn't overthink it. You'd prefer to ride in your own kit, but we knew the situation could be different, because Jonas could also have been wearing the pink jersey."

And so Vingegaard goes into the time trial with his head held high, without wasting energy on what-if scenarios. "He has spent a huge amount of time on the time trial bike, including at altitude. That always helps with performance. How good is he? He's won Paris-Nice and the Volta a Catalunya, and last year the Vuelta — so Jonas is in a good position."

Nobody was better placed to explain exactly where Vingegaard stands heading into the time trial than his coach Mathieu Heijboer. The Dutchman spoke to IDL Pro Cycling from Sierra Nevada and could only echo what Reef had said. Vingegaard has spent a great deal of time on the time trial bike, and stepped that up even further in preparation for the Giro.

"It is hard for me to say what steps Jonas has taken, because we haven't really made many changes to his position. During Jonas's career, we have already tested his position countless times," said Heijboer — indicating that the serious crash at the Tour of the Basque Country in 2024 had not required any change to his time trial bike position.

"He has the same position as before the crash," he stressed. "That is precisely why we've been able to truly perfect it. His training has been going well, Jonas feels strong, and we're confident in a good time trial. He was second in the final time trial in Nice at the 2024 Tour de France, and last year he won a time trial in the Algarve. Only his time trial at the Vuelta was difficult."

The blue mountains jersey Vingegaard will wear on Tuesday is not a problem for him, for Visma, or for Heijboer. "The skinsuit was delivered on Sunday evening, so Jonas needs to try it on during the rest day, and if anything is really wrong, the sponsor can still make adjustments. We have no idea what skinsuit we'll get, so we don't know how much time it will cost."

Visma | Lease a Bike's own time trial skinsuit is faster regardless — but Heijboer also stressed on Monday morning: "It won't be the fastest skinsuit, but there has been far more fuss about this from outside than from us. We didn't devise a tactic specifically to ride in our own kit. You don't pass up a stage like Blockhaus, or stage nine for that matter. The advantage you gain on the climbs is probably bigger than the disadvantage of making a big fuss about avoiding it."

"It is not an issue for Jonas either — he knew this, and has already ridden good time trials in race-issued jerseys before. We have invested a great deal in our own skinsuit, including in preparation for the team time trial at the Tour de France, but this can simply happen when a time trial falls this late in a Grand Tour. We don't make a big deal of it."