Vingegaard targets Vuelta after unanswered Tour questions - ‘His best climbing ever’
Visma | Lease a Bike remain unsure what caused Vingegard’s two bad days at the Tour de France, but asserts the mountain time trial and Mont Ventoux stages were the Dane’s two career best climbing performances, which he can reproduce at the Vuelta over the next three weeks.
Jonas Vingegaard will start the Vuelta a España in Turin on Saturday as one of the outstanding favourites to win the Spanish Grand Tour overall. After finishing second behind Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), the team are confident he heads to Italy with his form in the right place
Vingegaard has plenty of experience in managing his form after competing at the Tour de France. In 2023, he won the second of his two yellow jerseys and went on to finish second at the Vuelta behind team mate Sepp Kuss, with Primož Roglič locking out the podium for the Dutch team.
“Jonas recovered quickly after the Tour and is very motivated to win a Grand Tour,” the team’s head of performance, Mathieu Heijboer told Belgian magazine Knack. “His second place in the 2023 Vuelta proves he can handle a second Grand Tour in one year. Back then, his preparation was more difficult because of illness, this year, we deliberately kept his spring limited so he could ride two Grand Tours at a high level.”
Though he has not competed, Vingegaard has not been taking it easy since the Tour finish in Paris almost four weeks ago. After a short while at home in Denmark, he headed to the mountains of the French Haute Savoie with his family and a group of support personnel from the team, where he trained in a relaxed environment.
One thing the team are yet to bottom out is what caused the two days which effectively ended his Tour title bid. On stage five in Caen, he ceded 1:05 in the race’s first individual time trial, then on stage 12, the final climb to Hautacam proved even worse. There, Pogačar attacked at the bottom of the climb, and while Vingegaard could initially follow, he was soon dropped and lost a staggering 2:10. Those two stages accounted for 75% of his final deficit on GC.
“We don’t have a single clear reason,” Heijboer said. “A rider is unfortunately not a machine, but it was a pity, because in the mountain time trial and on Mont Ventoux Jonas produced his best climbing performances ever. Only one rider was better.”
While Visma | Lease a Bike has a strong team to support Vingegaard’s Vuelta ambitions and Pogačar will not race, the Slovenian’s team mates, João Almeida and Juan Ayuso, are certain to ensure the race is no walkover.
