Jonas Vingegaard clears doubts in Paris-Nice, but: "Cannot draw conclusions"

Jonas Vingegaard had to postpone his season start due to illness, but in Paris-Nice he once again displayed his class. The Dane left no doubt about his dominance and won the race with the largest post-war time gap, yet José De Cauwer still adds a caveat to his supremacy.

The former rider and team director, acting as co-commentator for VRT, saw how Vingegaard impressively secured the overall victory, but he was left with a different impression from the 84th edition of the 'Race to the Sun'.

"Especially the crashes. It was a decapitated Paris-Nice. We saw a strong Vingegaard. We saw a very strong Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. In the beginning, they really made a statement."

Decapitated edition
"Due to the crashes, primarily Juan Ayuso and Daniel Felipe Martinez along with a few others, Paris-Nice was a bit decapitated by the competition. That was needed. We saw a very good Jonas Vingegaard, but we couldn't really assess the competition. We couldn't see how good he was going to be. That is truly a shame."

De Cauwer is therefore cautious about drawing conclusions. "I stick to the point: what if those riders had stayed in the race? Quite a few dropped out. It's not just Ayuso, but others as well. That is very unfortunate, but it does not diminish Vingegaard’s victory."

In the upcoming Tour of Catalonia (March 23-29), we may get answers, as Vingegaard will face riders like Remco Evenepoel and Joao Almeida. "It’s not important to look at how good Vingegaard is, but how Remco Evenepoel measures up against Vingegaard. He was good here (in Paris-Nice, ed.)."