Tirreno-Adriatico 2024: Vingegaard in a league of his own! Tour winner outclasses the competition
Thomas Goldmann
· 08.03.2024
Even before the queen's stage to Monte Petrano on Saturday Jonas Vingegaard made things clear with a strong performance at Tirreno-Adriatico 2024. The reigning Tour de France champion attacked on stage 5, which led over 144 kilometres from Torricella Sicura to Valle Castellana, on the San Giacomo climb (1st category) 29 kilometres before the finish and left his opponents standing.
Tirreno-Adriatico 2024: Jonas Vingegaard takes on the blue jersey
The Dane mastered the subsequent descent with aplomb and took his 32nd professional victory with a lead of 1:12 minutes ahead of Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) and Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe). Vingegaard also took the overall leader's blue jersey, which had previously been worn by sprinter Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek).
We always had the plan to give it a go today. The team was fantastic. I'm very happy to have taken the win and to give something back to the boys. - Jonas Vingegaard in the official winner's interview
Tirreno-Adriatico 2024 - Results: The top 10 of stage 5
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) 3:28:27
- Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +1:12
- Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) +1:12
- Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +1:14
- Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) +1:14
- Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma | Lease a Bike) +1:14
- Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) +1:14
- Thomas Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) +2:52
- Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) +2:52
- Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ) +2:52
The current standings in the overall standings
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) 18:34:45
- Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +0:54
- Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) +1:20
- Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) +1:29
- Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +1:32
- Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) +1:34
- Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma | Lease a Bike) +2:12
- Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) +2:54
- Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +2:57
- Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ) +3:02
How the 5th stage of Tirreno-Adriatico 2024 went
For Chris Froome (Israel-Premier Tech) the race was already over before the start. The four-time winner of the Tour de France had to retire with a broken navicular bone. Anthony Delaplace (Arkea-B&B Hotels), Kristian Sbaragli (Team Corratec - Vini Fantini) and Rune Herregodts (Intermarche-Wanty) also failed to turn up for the enrolment check.
Ten-rider breakaway group
The first attacker of the day was Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck). However, the Belgian sprinter was quickly caught again and six riders made their escape: Ivan Garcia Cortina (Movistar), Andrea Vendrame (Dectahlon AG2R La Mondiale), Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech), Alessandro De Marchi (Team Jayco-AlUla), Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and Damien Howson (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team). They were followed shortly afterwards by four pros: Niccolo Bonifazio (Team Corratec - Vini Fantini), Clement Davy (Groupama-FDJ), Kasper Asgreen (Soudal - Quick Step) and Magnus Cort Nielsen (Uno-X Mobility). The two groups rode together.
However, the peloton did not allow the ten front-runners much of a lead - around two minutes at most. Visma | Lease a Bike in particular worked hard in the peloton. Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) had apparently crashed there. This was not captured by the cameras. The German rode through the picture with several grazes and initially caught up with the peloton again.
Attack by Jonas Vingegaard
On the approach to San Giacomo, a category 1 mountain and the main obstacle of the day, things got serious: Visma | Lease a Bike upped the pace again. Howson was the first breakaway rider to be caught, the rest of his escape companions shortly afterwards. Jonas Vingegaard attacked with 29 kilometres to go. Nobody was able to follow the two-time Tour de France winner. Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) joined forces as a chasing duo, followed by a quartet: Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Ivan Ramiro Sosa (Movistar). Around two and a half kilometres before the mountain classification, Ayuso received support from his team-mate Isaac del Toro, who caught up from behind.
Ivan Ramiro Sosa drives off the road
While O'Connor was caught by the quartet two kilometres before the mountain classification, Hindley initially continued as the lone chaser, but was also caught shortly before the summit. In the group around Ayuso, del Toro took over for the Spaniard and tried to limit the damage. This was only partially successful. One minute behind Vingegaard, the larger chasing group went over the crest. On the descent, Sosa and O'Connor lost contact after the Movistar Colombian took a breakaway.
Del Toro and Ayuso let it rip and snatched a few seconds from Vingegaard. However, after Del Toro misjudged a bend and the group lost speed, the time they had gained back was lost again. As a result, O'Connor was able to close the gap to the chasing pack with a show of strength.
When the road began to climb again in the last eight kilometres, UAE Team Emirates received support from the other members of the chasing group. This made little difference to the gap to Vingegaard. The Dane even gained time. In the end, it was 1:12 minutes to the chasing group, which was led to the finish by Ayuso.
Jonas Vingegaard also leads the mountain classification
Vingegaard, who also took the lead in the mountain classification, goes into Saturday's queen stage to Monte Petrano with a comfortable 54-second cushion over Ayuso.
