'He can perform in one-day races' - Mørkøv backs Vingegaard for European Championships
Fresh off his victory at the Vuelta a España, Jonas Vingegaard is set to turn his attention to one-day racing and line up at the European road race championships for the first time in his professional career.
Danish national coach Michael Mørkøv has rejected concerns about Jonas Vingegaard’s ability to perform in one-day races ahead of the European Championships, pointing to the 28-year-old’s performances on the opening day in recent stage races.
Despite having only participated in just a solitary one-day race since the end of 2022, last year’s Donostia Klasikoa San Sebastian, which he didn’t finish, Mørkøv believes that Vingegaard is up to the task and capable of delivering in the road race, which takes place on 5 October in the Drôme Ardèche region in France.
"I don't really buy that theory. I think he has performed remarkably well on several occasions in the first stage of the races he has competed in. He has ridden incredibly well, and it's difficult to argue that the first stage is not equivalent to a one-day race," Mørkøv told Feltet.
The Danish coach highlighted Vingegaard’s combative performance on the opening stage of the Critérium du Dauphine in June as well as the high-level battles with Tadej Pogačar and co in an explosive hilly opening week of the Tour de France in July. Mørkøv believes that this serves as evidence of his one-day potential.
"He attacks himself deep in the final, and then he rides a hard sprint against Van der Poel, where he finishes second. Which tells me that he can, of course, perform in a one-day race," said Mørkøv, referencing the stage where Vingegaard finished alongside stage winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Mathieu van der Poel, holding off the sprinters.
Vingegaard should also be well-suited to the arduous course that awaits the riders with over 3,400 metres of elevation gain, and plenty of steep climbs, including the Val D'Enfer, which averages just shy of 10% for around a mile.
It is, in fact, Mørkøv who holds Denmark's best result in the elite men's road race at the European Championships, having finished fifth back in 2019, where his then trade teammate Elia Viviani won ahead from a sprint against another QuickStep rider in Yves Lampaert.
Denmark are set to field a strong lineup for the European championships, with the likes of Mads Pedersen and Mattias Skjelmose also on the provisional start list, with Pogačar and Evenepoel also amongst those set to gun for European glory when they return from their exploits in Rwanda at the ongoing World Championships.
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