Rasmussen says Denmark may be better off without Vingegaard at Worlds

Uncertainty continues to surround Vingegaard’s plans for the remainder of the season as he recovers from the collarbone fracture that ended his Tour de France early.

Mads Pedersen has made no secret of his desire to have Vingegaard alongside him in the Danish team at the World Championships, publicly encouraging his compatriot to make the trip to Canada in a recent episode of his Lang Distance podcast.

Pedersen suggested there should still be enough time for the injury to heal before the road race on September 27.

Michael Rasmussen is far less convinced. Speaking on Viaplay, the former Tour de France yellow jersey wearer questioned whether Vingegaard would have enough time to rebuild the form required to play a meaningful role in Montréal.

“I actually think the Danish team would be better served if Jonas Vingegaard doesn’t turn up at the Worlds,” Rasmussen said.

“In this case, it would only create unnecessary expectations that I don’t think Vingegaard would be able to meet.”

Rasmussen’s concern is not simply whether Vingegaard can recover from the fracture itself. He believes the bigger issue is the amount of preparation the Visma | Lease a Bike leader would require after a prolonged spell away from racing and, potentially, full training.

With around five weeks remaining until the World Championships, Rasmussen questioned whether that window is now large enough to return to a level capable of competing with the best riders in the world.

Vingegaard’s status would also complicate Denmark’s tactics, in his view.

“He is still a rider of such calibre and has such status that he would have to be given a protected role,” Rasmussen said. “But that would be difficult to justify if he isn’t able to perform.”

Denmark already have another obvious option for a demanding course in Mattias Skjelmose. Rasmussen highlighted the Lidl-Trek rider’s strength as a one-day racer and his fourth place at last year’s World Championships as evidence that the national team does not necessarily need to build its race around Vingegaard.

A World Championships appearance had been under consideration long before Vingegaard crashed out of the Tour.

Speaking before the season, Vingegaard said any decision would depend on how he emerged from the Tour and, crucially, whether he still had the desire to continue racing deep into the season.

“If I still have something in me and I want to race, then it will probably be the Worlds,” Vingegaard said at the time.

Last year, Vingegaard made a rare appearance in a one day race at the European Championships in France, but the outing did not go to plan. He was dropped with 109 kilometres remaining and abandoned soon afterwards.

After the race, Vingegaard was realistic about his performance.

“It’s not that I’m losing faith,” he said. “It depends on how you prepare. I didn’t have the best preparation for this one. It was more to see how I would react and to represent Denmark. If I prepare properly, I can be up there in these races too.”

That now raises the obvious question: is there still enough time for that kind of preparation ahead of the Worlds?

Rasmussen believes Vingegaard could have returned to training relatively quickly after surgery and has been surprised by the continued uncertainty surrounding the rest of his season.

Asked whether he expects to see Vingegaard race again in 2026, Rasmussen was clear: he does not.

But his doubts go beyond whether the Visma | Lease a Bike rider returns to racing this season. Rasmussen also questioned what the Dane’s place at the very top of the sport might look like from here, particularly at the Tour de France.

That broader concern was reinforced by comments from Mattias Skjelmose, who recently opened up about a conversation he had with Vingegaard during the Tour.

During a podcast appearance, Skjelmose recalled Vingegaard telling him that he was performing better than ever, yet still could not match Tadej Pogačar.

“I’m performing better than ever. I simply can’t do more,” Skjelmose recalled Vingegaard saying. “What am I supposed to do when I’m better than ever and he still rides away from me?”

For Rasmussen, that admission said plenty.

While Vingegaard has consistently projected confidence publicly about his chances of beating Pogačar, Rasmussen sees a rider facing the difficult reality of producing career-best numbers and still being unable to stay with his biggest rival.

He went as far as questioning whether Vingegaard will ever return to the Tour podium.

“I actually think this is the last time we’ve seen Jonas Vingegaard on the podium at the Tour,” Rasmussen said.

“The riders behind him are getting closer, and Jonas is, at best, stagnating and possibly going backwards.”

Rasmussen is not writing Vingegaard off. He simply believes there may be more to gain from targeting other Grand Tours than returning to the Tour each year to chase Pogačar.

“In principle, Jonas might be just as well served by riding the Vuelta a España or the Giro d’Italia,” Rasmussen said.

He also pointed to shorter stage races as possible targets, with the Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse among the notable gaps on Vingegaard’s palmarès.

Those are ambitions the Visma rider himself recently hinted at during a press conference at the Tour of Denmark. Winning those races could put Vingegaard in a unique position, with the Dane potentially becoming the first rider to complete a sweep of cycling’s major one week stage races.

That, however, is a question for 2027 and beyond. For now, the more immediate one is whether Vingegaard will race again this season at all.