After losing time on the first stage of the 2023 Tour de France, champion Jonas Vingegaard downplayed the significance of his defeat in Bilbao.

The Dane was 22 seconds behind stage winner Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) and 4 seconds behind his biggest rival, Yates' teammate Tadej Pogachar.

Vingegaard is currently ninth overall, but there are still 20 days left in the Tour. The time difference is slight, even if he is behind.

"I think they took four seconds off me," said Vingegaard outside the team hotel in Jumbovisma, just past the finish line in Bilbao. The Tour de France probably won't be decided by four seconds."

Jumbo-Visma showed its strength in the final stages of the hilly Basque stage, which led to the base of the day's final climb, the Côte de Paix, 10 km from the finish. The Dutch team controlled the peloton with half of the team until Yates got involved with Pogachar's acceleration, but Vingegaard outpaced the Slovenian on the climb.

Ultimately, it was the Yates twins, Adam and Simon, who took the win from the summit to Bilbao, but despite missing out on stage glory, Vingegaard was pleased with his and his team's performance in a tricky opening race.

"I'm very happy with my team," he said. 'They kept me safe all day. There was a big crash, so of course I'm happy to be safe and not crash.

"Of course I wanted to win today, but you can't win every day."

Wout Van Aert, Vingegaard's teammate, was one of the favorites to win and take his first yellow jersey in the Tour.

"Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to sprint for the win," Van Aert later said of his team's effort on the day. 'I would rather have been myself. I came here for the stage win, but I have no regrets. The Yates brothers were stronger than us.

Merijn Zeeman, the team's sporting director, also concluded that Jumbo Visma had done everything in his power to win the opening stage of the Tour (his 43rd victory in 2023), but pointed out that the stage incident was only the first blow in a long battle for the maillot jaune He pointed out.

"I think I did everything possible," Zeman said. It was a strong win for Adam Yates and his brother, a win that was worth it for the UAE and for him."

"But I think we did really well in the yellow fight. With Wout there we were able to fight with four cars. I think this result is OK for us. We have three weeks of fighting ahead of us."