Jonas Vingegaard, Sepp Kuss and the Jumbo Visma team hope to continue to improve the Danish climber's overall ranking in Tirreno-Adriatico as they engage in friendly competition with their Paris-Nice dominant teammates.

Jumbo Visma has two 1-2-3 stage finishes and Primoš Roglic leads the Paris-Nice race. They also dominated the race with impressive performances from Wout Van Aert, Roglic himself, and newcomers Christophe Laporte, who won the first stage, and Rohan Dennis, who won the time trial.

Vingegaard is fourth overall in Tirreno-Adriatico, 45 seconds behind race leader Tadej Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates), who could challenge Remco Evenpole for second place overall by 9 seconds.

Kuss is supporting Vingegaard, especially after a mechanical problem prevented him from climbing the large, steep "Muri." However, the friendly competition with his teammates in France has been a source of inspiration.

"I think they are better than us, but we have to do our best not to lose to them," Kuss said with a laugh.

"We want to do our best. But Carpeña is a hard climb. It will be a super hard stage. There are two steep climbs and a descent. There are all kinds of possibilities."

Vingegaard may have been unsure of the color of the Tirreno-Adriatico leader's jersey after Thursday's stage, but he has a clear goal for Saturday's 215-km stage over Monte Carpeña: to finish third overall in the 2021 Tour de France. He has been strong early in the 2022 season and proved it by winning the recent Drome Classic one-day race in France.

"It's going to be a really hard day," he predicted, choosing his words carefully about the 215-km Calpeña stage.

"Tirreno is my goal, so I'm happy with the way things are going. I'm not happy with the time trial, but that's the way it is. I'm happy with my form."

Vingegaard was frustrated that he ended up behind Evenpole on the descent, but he accepted that he had lost this chance.

"I'm happy to be up there today. It was a tough day. Lemko attacked well, but I had the legs to keep up with him.

"Unfortunately we took a wrong turn. I was going down the hill and all of a sudden I had to go right."

With Tirreno-Adriatico ending Sunday with a flat stage and sprint finish, Vingegaard's chance to respond to his Jumbo-Visma teammate in France lies on the steep slopes of Monte Carpeña.