Jonas Vingegaard confirms early comeback after crash and illness scare

Visma | Lease a Bike confirmed the update in a team statement on Monday, framing the French stage race as Vingegaard’s first competitive outing after a winter focused on preparation.

“I am excited to be at the start of Paris-Nice once again. It is a prestigious race with a lot of history. As a team, we have a title to defend here. After crashing and falling ill, I took the necessary time to recover. Now I feel ready to start racing again and am looking forward to it after a long winter of training," Vingegaard said.

The Dane had been set to open his season earlier, but the combination of a fall and sickness disrupted those plans. He crashed during a descent on a training ride in Málaga in early February, an incident that became a talking point when Vingegaard indicated he felt a rider following too closely contributed to the situation. 

Although the initial damage appeared limited, the combined effects of the crash and the illness that followed ruled him out of the UAE Tour.

Paris-Nice, which runs from 8 to 15 March, now becomes his return point and slots in ahead of the Volta a Catalunya, starting 23 March, which had been expected to serve as his season opener once the UAE Tour was taken off the table.

Visma | Lease a Bike have won Paris-Nice in each of the last two seasons with Matteo Jorgenson, but the American will race Tirreno-Adriatico instead this year, putting Vingegaard at the centre of the team’s challenge in France. The field should still be stacked, with Juan Ayuso, Joao Almeida, Oscar Onley and Kévin Vauquelin all expected to start after impressing at the Volta ao Algarve.

For the team, the decision brings a marquee name back into the race after a difficult start to the year. After Simon Yates’ surprise retirement and the crashes involving Van Aert and Vingegaard, the team also had to absorb the departure of Vingegaard’s coach, Tim Heemskerk.

It also gives Vingegaard a chance to turn a long winter block into race sharpness sooner than planned, without compromising his wider ambitions. Those bigger objectives remain later in the year, with the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France expected to be his main targets.