Tadej Pogacar invites Jonas Vingegaard to join the Classics party

Earlier this week, the cycling world was surprised by the announcement that Remco Evenepoel will ride the Tour of Flanders. A development Pogačar welcomed.

“I think from my side, it’s good to have a rider like Remco, always wanting to go from far out, racing hard far from the finish and always on the attack,” Pogačar said at a team press conference on Friday.

“We saw from the last few races that he’ll go for the win no matter what. I think he can do a really great race on Sunday, I think he’s in good shape. I’ll have to watch out for his long-range attacks and just not let him out of my sight.”

With Evenepoel on the start line, four of the so-called ‘big five’ will line up on Sunday. That naturally raised the question whether Vingegaard, the missing name, should also be there.

Pogačar did not hesitate to extend the invitation. “I told Jonas in 2023 when we finished stage 20 of the Tour at the Markstein that the way he’s riding, all three weeks, why doesn’t he come to try to race the Classics?” Pogačar added.

“With the kind of shape he is in at the Tour, I think he can race for the victory in the biggest Classics of the year.”

Vingegaard, who has already won Paris-Nice and the Volta a Catalunya this season, briefly returned to one-day racing last year at the European Road Championships. It ended without success, as he was dropped with 109 kilometres to go and abandoned the race.

It was his first one-day race since his first Tour de France win in 2022, but there was no frustration afterwards.

“It’s not that I’m losing faith,” he told Feltet.dk. “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.”

This season, Vingegaard is focused on a Giro d’Italia and Tour de France double, aiming to complete his Grand Tour set and, after two years, challenge Pogačar again. A return to one-day racing could come later in the year, with the UCI Road World Championships in Montréal and Il Lombardia the most likely targets.

Following his heavy crash at Itzulia Basque Country in 2024, the Dane has developed into a more muscular and explosive rider. That evolution was visible during the 2025 Tour de France, even if he lacked consistency over three weeks. Those are, however, the very qualities required to compete in one-day races. If he can crack the code of preparation, Vingegaard may yet be able to take up Pogačar’s invitation and become a factor in the Classics.