Montreal Worlds 'not out of the question' for Vingegaard after Tour crash

The Visma | Lease a Bike rider was speaking in his hometown of Glyngøre, where he was feted for his victory at this year’s Giro d’Italia ahead of stage 2 of the Tour of Denmark.

Vingegaard’s attempt to complete the Giro-Tour double ended in disappointment when he suffered a broken collarbone in a crash on stage 15 of the Tour. He was lying second overall at the time, and his abandon brought an end to his sequence of five consecutive top two finishes at the Tour.

“I needed a break after the Tour. It’s been a tough year and a tough bike race, so in any case I needed a break because there's been so much,” Vingegaard said, according to TV2. 

The Dane underwent surgery following his crash, but he has not yet resumed training. “It’s getting better, it’s not really bad anymore. I can use my arm now. It’s not quite like before, but it will be.”

Vingegaard has yet to schedule a date for his return to competition and it is not yet clear if he will race again in 2026. He played a straight bat when asked about riding the World Championships in Montreal, where Tadej Pogačar is chasing a third successive rainbow jersey.

“I actually don’t know yet, it depends on how the collarbone reacts, and how it heals, and how it recovers,” Vingegaard said of lining up at the Worlds. “It’s not out of the question for me, but I also don’t want to say now that it’s going to happen.”

Vingegaard has never raced the Worlds as an elite rider, and he made his debut for the Danish national team at that level with an ill-starred appearance at last year’s European Championships.

Asked to revisit the Tour, Vingegaard suggested that riding the Giro beforehand had not been conducive to the more explosive nature of the 2026 route. Vingegaard already trailed Pogačar by 4:30 in the overall standings at the time of his crash.

“We may have misunderstood the Tour a bit this year,” Vingegaard said, according to Feltet. “We made me better on the longer climbs. But it could well be that we should have realised I needed to be a bit more explosive and look more closely at the route. Obviously, it’s difficult to be explosive when you’ve just ridden the Giro."

Vingegaard also downplayed suggestions that he is already planning to retire when his current contract with Visma expires at the end of 2028.

“I haven’t decided yet when I will stop. Time will tell,” he said. “If I feel at the end of 2028 that I don’t want to do it anymore, I will stop. But it is also possible that I will continue.”