87 days after last pinning on a race number, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) returns to action at the Critérium du Dauphiné, ahead of his key season target, the Tour de France.
Despite not turning his pedals in anger for almost three months, the Dane arrives at the pre-Tour warm-up race in a relaxed mood, without strict expectations on his performance.
"It's a long time since I was at my last race, about three months, so of course I'm happy to be back. It will be nice to see where I'm standing this week," he told reporters, including Cyclingnews, at the start of stage 1 in Domérat.
However, while the two-time Tour winner is happy to be back testing himself against a stacked GC field, including Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-Soudal), he's leaving room for improvement even after the race's mountainous final stages later next week.
"I still think that being in top shape at this moment would probably be a bit too early. Hopefully, I can even afterwards [ahead of the Tour de France] put another half or more on my level."
Vingegaard spoke last week about "feeling like a completely different person" in comparison to this time last year, when a nasty crash at the Itzulia Basque Country left him with a race against time to be ready for the Tour, where he ultimately came up short against Pogačar.
His Slovenian rival was openly positive about his training data during a press conference yesterday, perhaps throwing down the gauntlet ahead of the final three stages of the Dauphiné and beyond.
Vingegaard appeared to offer a broader take on the topic when he added: "One thing is how it's going in training, and another thing is how it is in racing. Of course, it's a good way of seeing where you stand. I can see that I'm doing pretty well in training."
The pair may have differing opinions about what shows good form, but one thing that can't be ignored is the fewer racedays on the Visma-Lease a Bike rider's legs.
Will it leave the Dane playing catch-up? He doesn't think so.
"I think that's more talking than anything. I mean, I still remember in 2020 with the COVID [-impacted] year, nobody was racing for half a year, and when everybody was racing again, the level was completely different, a lot higher," he added.
"I wouldn't say that no racing is a bad thing, of course, I would have liked to race more, but it's not necessarily a bad thing."
