'It's only a safer play' – Matteo Jorgenson dampens expectations of fireworks by Visma-Lease a Bike earlier than second half of Vuelta a España

Matteo Jorgenson has confirmed that the notably conservative stance taken by Visma-Lease a Bike on the main climbs of the Vuelta a España boils all the way down to the group opting to take a ‘basic’ method to Jonas Vingegaard’s bid to change into Denmark’s first-ever winner of the Spanish Grand Tour.

Vingegaard did take an early stage win in an uphill sprint for the road at Limone Piemonte, and completed third the next day at Ceres, and he has already twice held the lead within the Vuelta. However on neither event did Vingegaard have to deploy a full-scale assault by his group on the chief’s jersey.

Moreover, whereas his victory at Limone Piemonte was on a Cat. 2 climb, quite than a long-distance solo assault, he didn’t even suppose taking the win was possible till he was very near the road. Then at Ceres, though taking third in a dash towards David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was a reminder of his versatility, Vingegaard stated afterwards he didn’t suppose he was ever able to clinch the victory.

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Whereas the group clearly pushed themselves onerous within the group time trial, coming a narrowly defeated second to UAE Crew Emirates-XRG, since then, Visma’s function has been extra muted, with non-GC risk Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) being allowed to remain forward to take the lead on stage 6, and Vingegaard primarily following wheels quite than attacking on the 2 Pyrenean summit finishes.

This stands in stark distinction to Visma’s ultra-active technique within the first week of the Tour de France, and even to 2023 within the Vuelta a España, the place the squad fired Sepp Kuss up the highway on the stage to Javalambre, forcing their rivals to chase.

As a substitute of placing riders in breakaways or having Vingegaard put the hammer down within the mountains, Jorgenson defined on the stage 7 begin, the concept is to remain inside their limits for so long as potential previous to the a lot more durable final two-thirds of the Vuelta.

“I assume within the Tour we had been among the actors of chaos, however I feel we have approached this primary week in a extremely calm method and allowed the bike racing to occur,” Jorgenson stated.

“I feel within the second and third week, we’ll have a little bit of a special technique.”

Requested if the choice to let the Vuelta develop with out attempting to regulate it an excessive amount of needed to do with the race being a extra unpredictable form of competitors, Jorgenson stated it wasn’t essentially the case.

“I do not know, I have never seemed that far forward, however I feel the group will be assured that if we save our vitality on this first week and get by means of to the actual large mountain days, then we’ll have a greater likelihood,” he defined. “It is only a safer play for us.”

Jorgenson was nonetheless together with his earlier squad, Movistar, when Visma final received the Vuelta, again in 2023, when Sepp Kuss, Vingegaard and Primož Roglič scooped the highest three spots general. However he has raced with Vingegaard in each of his final Excursions de France, giving the American a ring-side seat into how his group chief handles Grand Tour racing.

As Jorgenson defined it, the Dane’s ultra-consistent observe file in July, mixed with the drop in strain on the Spanish Grand Tour, made for an excellent mixture when it got here to battling for the Vuelta.

“He is doing rather well,” Jorgenson stated. “For everybody, in case you do the Tour de France, it is an enormous build-up and the yr is structured round it, so you have got loads of extras, to illustrate, with media and coaching camps, and all these items creates an enormous build-up in your mind and physique.

“Then, if you get to that race itself, you have got loads of nerves and anxiousness. There’s simply loads of strain, particularly on Jonas – he is received it [the Tour] twice.

“So if you come to the Vuelta after having executed that, you are feeling that inside confidence that in case you’ve executed nicely on the Tour, you are going to just about do nicely wherever. It simply feels much more pure, and he appears actually calm and able to take it on.”

In all probability the important thing consider all of this, in any case, is that quite than being the underdogs as they had been on the Tour, Visma are at the moment anticipated to be making the operating within the Vuelta and as such are wanting on the race in a long-term perspective. It is a technique that’s extremely harking back to the 2021 Vuelta, in reality, the place Roglič opened up the race with a robust assertion within the opening prologue at Burgos, however then solely took a definitive lead general on stage 17 at Covadonga.

This time spherical, too, it appears, Visma are content material to play a ready recreation – for now.

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