'I haven't found the right way to do them' - Vingegaard on missing Classics clash with Pogacar

The Dane will ride the UAE Tour and the Volta a Catalunya in preparation for his tilt at the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France, but he will not ride any Spring Classics and he has yet to commit to any races beyond July, including September’s World Championships in Montreal.

Vingegaard has only lined up in three one-day races since he won his first Tour de France in 2022. He placed 16th in that year’s Il Lombardia, while he abandoned the 2024 Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa and the 2025 European Championships road race.

Remarkably, that European Championships was Vingegaard’s first appearance for the Danish national team since he was an under-23 rider, and his reluctance to ride the Classics has been drawn into sharper focus by his rival Tadej Pogacar’s astonishing collection of Monument victories over the years. 

Vingegaard defended his decision to forgo the Classics once again in 2026, pointing out that racing in the Ardennes did not tally with his target of the Giro-Tour double.

“I still have 60 race days, so it’s not like I don’t have any race days,” Vingegaard told Wielerflits. “If you do much in the Spring, you’ll pay for it in the Tour.”

As things stand, Vingegaard will not race against Pogacar in 2026 until they line up at the Tour de France in July, which was also the case in 2024. Last year, they faced off at the Dauphiné ahead of the Tour, while in 2023, they clashed at Paris-Nice.

“I understand that people want to see us racing each other all the time, but we also have individual goals and plans for the year,” Vingegaard said. “Tadej chooses all the one-day races, and I have a lot of respect for that because I haven’t found the right way to do one-day races. 

“I would like to do it. I also enjoy watching these races and I really understand why he wants to win them because I would also love to win them – but for the moment, I just can’t. We’re also preparing more for races because the level is getting so much higher and you really need to prepare 100% for every race.”

Vingegaard delivered a surprisingly subdued display at last year’s European Championships, where he was dropped with more than 100km to go, but he insisted it was not indicative of a disregard for one-day racing.

“I was completely done after the Vuelta, and I had to take so much time off that it wasn’t doable to do the Europeans,” he said. “I hope that people realise it’s not that I haven’t wanted to do the World Championships in the past, it’s that I haven’t had the energy to do it.”