Jonas Vingegaard on his first climbing test in 2024 was untouchable, dropping every GC contender on a 6% climb in a headwind, despite the draft advantage to those in his wheel.
The reigning Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard started his 2024 campaign in O Gran Camiño where he was untouchable last year, winning all three stages that were not cancelled. The Stage 1 time-trial was neutralized for GC standings due to strong wind, riders doing the time-trial on their road bikes. Vingegaard likely would have gained time on other GC contenders but as he is the best climber of the 21st century during his peak shape, it would take a huge climbing performance for anyone to beat him on the climbs here anyway.
It was raining and cold in Galicia as it is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and a cold snap has hit the Iberian Peninsula. Alto de San Pedro de Licora (5.2 km, 6.2%) is not a steep climb by pro cycling standards but as Visma-Lease a Bike brought a strong squad they would likely be aggresive. The stage was very hard before the final climb. Egan Bernal in the peloton burned 3199 kilojoules for 3:36 hours. That is 15.07 kj/kg/h, which is a high intensity day by Tour de France standards, which does not also feature these cold conditions. Wilco Kelderman did the first part of the San Pedro de Licora climb very hard, setting up his team leader for attack.
With 3.8 km to go on the climb, Vingegaard accelerated and opened a gap immediately. South American duo Egan Bernal and Jefferson Alveiro Cepeda bridged the gap and stayed on the Dane’s wheel on the shallow section. Later on the climb the last breakaway survivor Alex Molenaar was caught. Bernal and Cepeda could hold Vingegaard’s wheel on the 4.5% section as they saved many watts in the draft. A strong headwind also helped the South Americans but Vingegaard did not care and on the final part of the climb dropped both of them. Bernal lost contact with 1 km to go and completely blew up, losing 20 seconds in the last kilometre.
Vingegaard did 6.97 ᵉW/Kg for 11:24 min on the climb. But his performance was even more impressive as the peloton did the same climb 26 km previously at the same speed as the final repetition for the Lenny Martinez, Richard Carapaz and David Gaudu eight rider group who did 6.01 ᵉW/Kg for 12:15 min . The fatigue in the legs meant that Cepeda and Bernal pushed only 6.39 ᵉW/Kg for 11:44 min. Cian Uijtdebroeks who was chilling in the peloton and did not pace behind Vingegaard was fourth fastest with 6.14 ᵉW/Kg for 12:15 min.