'He's here to win' - Vingegaard takes on Pogacar, Evenepoel at European Championships

Jonas Vingegaard makes his belated senior debut for the Danish national team when he lines out in the European Championships road race in the Drôme-Ardêche on Sunday. Remarkably, the two-time Tour de France winner hasn’t lined up in national colours since he competed in the under-23 road race at the 2018 World Championships in Innsbruck.

“It’s very special, riding for the country is just so nice,” Vingegaard told a press conference on Saturday evening. “Tomorrow is the first time I do it in a race and I’m looking forward to it.”

Riding a one-day race of any description is something of a rarity for Vingegaard, who has lined out in just two since he won his first Tour in 2022. He placed 16th in that year’s Il Lombardia and abandoned last season’s Clásica de Sebastián, but the hilly European Championships course persuaded him to return to the discipline.

“It was a good way to try again,” Vingegaard said. “Without this race, my season would would already be finished, so to come here was a good moment to try it as well, and I’m happy to be with the national team. We have a strong ream and hopefully we can go well.”

Vingegaard lines up alongside Amstel Gold Race winner Mattias Skjelmose at the head of a solid Danish team. Although Skjelmose took fourth at last week’s World Championships in Kigali, he indicated that Vingegaard was above him in the hierarchy here.

“He’s here to win the European Championships,” Skjelmose said. “Jonas is the key, he’s the only one in the world that regularly follows Tadej when he really opens up. It’s nice to have that. 

“If Tadej [Pogacar] and Remco [Evenepoel] focus on Jonas, it’s good for me. But the way Jonas is riding, there’s a clear chance he can also win.”

Vingegaard was more circumspect about his own prospects given that he hasn’t raced since winning the Vuelta a España three weeks ago, though he acknowledged that his ambitions were high.

“I always go for the best possible result but as a team also, that’s the goal,” he said. “I’m coming out of Vuelta with bit of uncertainty because it’s been a long season and I’ve done two Grand Tours, so you don’t know how it is. But as a team, we are going for the best possible result.

“I wouldn’t have come here if I thought I would be the first guy dropped. I don’t see that happening but I’m also not 100% sure how my shape is. I guess we’ll see tomorrow. If I don’t have it, then I would like to help Mattias.”

The expectation, of course, is that the stiff climb of the Côte de Saint-Romain-de-Lerps will see Vingegaard in a showdown with the world champion Pogacar and the Kigali road race silver medallist Evenepoel.

“We did it today, it is a very hard climb,” said Vingegaard. “They were in very good shape at the Worlds, so whether there is a three-way battle doesn’t depend on them, but on me.”

Vingegaard was cautious, however, about the idea that he might be inspired to compete with Pogacar and Evenepoel in the Ardennes next Spring.

“I always said I would like to go back to one-day races, but I never found the recipe for me,” Vingegaard said. “If I find it here, then I would like to do some more one-day races, but maybe races with the national team fit is a bit better than Liège-Bastogne-Liège in my race schedule. The national team races are more towards the end of the season, and before that my main goal is normally the Tour and I focus on best possible preparation for that.”