Vingegaard sets sights on Vuelta after Tour podium and hints at Giro ambitions
The Dane will have a short window of recovery before he begins his preparations for the Spanish Grand Tour, which he is set to return to for the third time in his career.
After finishing second at the Tour de France for the second year running, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) reflected on his three weeks racing around France, speaking to TV2.
“In some stages, I reached my highest level ever, but it's also true that in other stages, I rode my worst in years. I had a few bad days. I'm better than ever, but it also turned out that I had some lesser days,” Vingegaard admitted to TV2.
His second-place finish means Vingegaard has been on the podium in the last five editions of the Tour de France, with two victories in 2022 and 2023. In his seven grand tours in total, he has finished on the podium in the last six, and in his first grand tour, he wasn’t even racing for the GC - a very impressive record for the Dane.
“Looking back on my career and thinking about what I've achieved, I think it's something to be proud of: that I've completed the Tour de France five times and finished on the podium five times,” Vingegaard added.
He was asked about the comments made by his wife Trine Hansen at the start of the race and if they had any influence on his performance, but Vingegaard dismissed the idea, “To be honest, it didn’t have any influence whatsoever. We rode the way we wanted to.”
Vingegaard will swiftly turn his attention to the upcoming Vuelta a España, which begins in Turin, Italy, on August 23, where he will be aiming to win a third grand tour of his career to add to his two Tour de France titles.
He has appeared twice previously at the Vuelta a España, and finished runner-up in 2023 behind his team mate Sepp Kuss, as the then Jumbo-Visma team did a clean sweep of the general classification podium with Primož Roglič on the third step.
“I'm going to take it easy for a week and then start training for the Vuelta. As soon as I feel refreshed, I'll get back on the bike. That will give me just over two weeks before the race starts. It's not much time, but I did it two years ago and it went well,” Vingegaard explained, with the quick turnaround between finishing in Paris and appearing on the start line in Turin, Italy, for the start of the Vuelta.
Vingegaard also expressed interest in racing the Giro d’Italia, the only grand tour he is yet to feature at in his career, but remained non-committal about a potential appearance in 2026 at the Italian race.
“I’ve always said that I’d like to compete in that race. I’m not saying right now that I’ll be riding the Giro next year, because we still have to discuss it with the team. We’ll see if it happens.”
