Sometimes, you don't even need to see a bike rider in person or read their results to know how they got on in a race - and when a Visma-Lease a Bike staff member cut around to the back of the winner's podium in the Volta ao Algarve stage 2 finish and re-emerged with a team turbo trainer under his arm, concerning Jonas Vingegaard at least, the underlying message was clear.
After the Dane's defeat at the hands of the UAE Team Emirates and as a fast-rising evening wind whistled across the isolated summit finish of Foia high above the Algarve coast, any need for a warm-down in that part of the finish area and on that particular day for the double Tour de France champion was definitely surplus to team requirements.
Playing for the win on Vingegaard's first stage race of 2025 had definitely been part of the VIsma-Lease a Bike plan during the stage, though. For one thing, key teammates like Wout van Aert and Tiesj Benoot had done some sterling build-up work on the Volta ao Algarve's toughest climbing stage by helping Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Lidl-Trek reel in the break and shrink the peloton.
Then on the lower part of the Alto da Foia, itself, while Vingegaard's climbing teammates Wilco Keldermann and Sepp Kuss were not on a great day, Visma's Ben Tulett stepped into the breach in fine style, chasing after the winning break with Jan Christen and putting Vingegaard in an ideal position to set up a counter strike.
However, when it came to Vingegaard's own, theoretically definitive acceleration, for all he helped shred the chase group with a steady, blazing raising of the pace, it wasn't enough for the win.
Instead, other contenders like João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) were able to make the most of his effort and overtake him, in Almeida's case all but bridging across to teammate and stage winner Christen, while arch-rival Primož Roglič barely lost more than a handful of seconds at the top.
More to the point, rather than begin his season in the same triumphant way that he had done in the Gran Camiño stage race in Spain in 2023 and 2024, in 2025's first big challenge, Vingegaard ended up placing a lacklustre sixth, ten seconds down.
It had looked as if he might manage to close the gap on Christen with his solo drive - but instead, some 800 metres from the line, the Swiss rider had one last acceleration left in the bag. As a result, UAE claimed not just the win, but also second with Almeida and fifth with Antonio Morgado, exploiting Vingegaard's hard work to the maximum and on the results sheet, to devastating effect.
"Tactically it was perfect today. Ben Tulett was in the attack on the final climb, which was good for us," Visma sports director Arthur van Dongen explained later as journalists assembled at the team bus - the only one to come to the top of the Foia - for a post-stage analysis.
"Then he had to let go, and Vingegaard could do his turns with the favourites to do long turns with the chasing group."
However, as Van Dongen said, Ineos and UAE were already at an advantage tactically with one rider apiece ahead - Laurens de Plus, finally third at the line, and Christen respectively. On top of that, he said, "Everybody was following Jonas and could make the most of it and that's what Almeida did in the end."
Not that there was any criticism of Almeida was intended on Van Dongen's part: rather he said simply "That's how cycling works," he said.
Vingegaard did not talk to journalists at the finish, but Van Dongen confirmed that he was disappointed. He also said that overall the team plan had worked out for the Algarve, despite the absence of Kuss and Kelderman, who he said, "are normally there in such terrain. But it was their first stage race and a special race with the steep ascent before the final climb, so they were out of it before the finish.
“I think we took control and we set a good pace with Van Aert and Benoot and did a good race. Ben Tulett was there for us and that was good. Jonas was on the radio saying, ‘Ben this is the moment’ and he was there. He had to close the gap when he was at the front with the five guys and later he was dropped.
"But then Jonas had to pull by himself and that was a killer."
The chances of Vingegaard repeating his early season victories in the Gran Camiño are definitely reduced after this setback, but the final 19.6-kilometre time trial in Algarve, with its second uphill half, certainly represents an excellent opportunity for him to turn the tables on the UAE collective challenge. “With this TT, and [a] 20 seconds [gap on the leader], it’s all still possible,” Van Dongen argued.
So at least from the Dutch team's point of view, that Visma turbo trainer may yet be back and in use at the Algarve winner's podium ceremony before the week is done, then. But whatever happens next Sunday for Vingegaard himself, though, suffering a climbing defeat against Pogačar's teammates, let alone his key rival for the Tour de France in person, is surely not the start he would have wanted to 2025.
