Vingegaard set to skip Worlds as 2026 season looks increasingly likely to be over

Vingegaard fractured his right collarbone in a crash on stage 15 of the Tour, bringing an abrupt end to his attempt at a Giro d’Italia and Tour de France double. Almost a month later, the 29-year-old is still not ready to return to competition.

According to reports from Belgian newspaper HLN and La Gazzetta dello Sport in Italy, Vingegaard will not line up for Denmark in the World Championships road race in Montreal on September 27. HLN reports that, according to its sources, the Dane will skip the Worlds and is unlikely to race again this season. 

La Gazzetta dello Sport journalist Ciro Scognamiglio similarly reported on Friday that Visma | Lease a Bike is expected to provide an update on its Danish leader early next week, while adding that a return to racing before the end of 2026 now appears very unlikely.

Vingegaard had still been considering the Worlds at the end of July. Speaking in his hometown of Glyngøre during the Tour of Denmark, where he was honoured for his Giro d’Italia victory, he said his participation would depend on how his collarbone responded during the recovery process.

“I actually don’t know yet, it depends on how the collarbone reacts, and how it heals, and how it recovers,” Vingegaard said at the time. “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 underwent surgery after his Tour crash and had yet to resume training when he spoke publicly on July 29. Although he said the injury was improving and that he could use his arm again, he also acknowledged the physical and mental toll of a demanding season.

“I needed a break after the Tour,” he said. “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.”

Skipping Montreal would leave Vingegaard with relatively few obvious reasons to rebuild his condition for the final weeks of the season.

The Dane is not known as a prolific one day racer and has rarely built the latter part of his calendar around the autumn Classics. His most recent appearance at Il Lombardia came in 2022.

There is also the accumulated workload to consider. Vingegaard has already completed 51 race days this season after a campaign that included overall victories at Paris-Nice, the Volta a Catalunya and the Giro d’Italia before his Tour de France challenge.

The Giro was arguably the defining success of his year, but it may also have played a part in what followed in July.

Looking back on the Tour, Vingegaard admitted that his preparation might not have been perfectly suited to the route. He felt Visma had focused heavily on improving his performance on longer climbs when the Tour demanded more repeated accelerations.

“We may have misunderstood the Tour a bit this year,” Vingegaard said. “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.”

He added that producing that explosiveness was always going to be difficult so soon after racing the Giro.

At the time of his crash, Vingegaard was second overall in the Tour but already 4:30 behind Tadej Pogačar. His abandon also ended a remarkable run of five consecutive top two finishes at the race.

Vingegaard’s possible presence in Montreal had become a talking point in Denmark in recent weeks.

Mads Pedersen publicly encouraged his compatriot to make the trip to Canada, while former Tour de France contender Michael Rasmussen argued that Denmark might actually be better served without Vingegaard if he could not arrive in top condition.

Rasmussen questioned whether the five weeks remaining before the road race would offer enough time to recover fully, rebuild form and then prepare for a demanding World Championships course.

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

Vingegaard has never contested the elite men’s World Championships. His rare appearance for Denmark at last year’s European Championships ended with him being dropped more than 100 kilometres from the finish before eventually abandoning.

He said afterwards that inadequate preparation had played a significant role and insisted he could be competitive in major one day races if he specifically trained for them.

That preparation now appears increasingly unrealistic for Montreal, and is likely to be one of the main reasons behind the decision to skip the World Championships altogether.