Two-time Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard apparently considered ending his cycling career last year. “I said last year: if things are going to carry on like this, then I can’t do this any longer. That’s why we’ve made a few changes. I think the team also realised what the situation was. They noticed that I wasn’t happy last year,” the 29-year-old told Danish TV channel TV2 on the sidelines of the Tour de France.
His Visma team had accepted that things needed to change, said Vingegaard. “And that’s exactly what we’ve done.” It’s not ideal to do the same thing every year. The current second-placed rider in the Tour also spoke of the great sacrifices that cycling entails. “As a professional cyclist, you feel as though you’re constantly on a diet. You always have to watch your weight and you’re constantly training. A lot is demanded of you. It takes its toll on both body and mind,” Vingegaard emphasised.
Being away from his family for such a long time isn’t easy either, the father added. “If it’s hard to be away from home for so long, you just have to take a different approach – that’s exactly what we’ve done for me this year,” said Vingegaard, whose contract runs until 2028.
A hat-trick in the major stage races
The Dane took part in the Giro d'Italia for the first time this year and secured a commanding victory. This makes him only the eighth rider in cycling history to have won all three Grand Tours (the Tour, the Giro and the Vuelta) – a feat that his rival Tadej Pogacar has yet to achieve. The world champion has not yet won the Vuelta a España.
Even after his serious crash at the 2024 Tour of the Basque Country, there was a question mark over Vingegaard’s career. However, the Dane made a strong comeback and finished second in the Tour de France in each of the last two years behind Pogacar, although he stood no chance against the Slovenian. This year, too, he is once again trailing by a considerable margin.
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