LA NUCIA, Spain (Velo) — Jonas Vingegaard is racing to regain his grand tour crown in 2025 and confirmed plans Tuesday to tackle both the Tour de France and Vuelta a España.
The announcement sets the stage for another round of battles with longtime nemesis and rival Tadej Pogačar, widely expected to target the same grand tours.
Speaking from the Visma-Lease a Bike team camp in Spain, Vingegaard sketched out details of his personal redemption tour in 2025, which also features key spring targets such as Paris-Nice and the Volta a Catalunya.
“Getting back to the Tour de France is the main goal,” Vingegaard said. “It’s the biggest race of the year, and there’s just something special about the Tour.”
Vingegaard skipped a chance to race the Giro d’Italia to hunt for what would be a third yellow jersey.
After a personally rough and tumble 2024, coupled with Pogačar’s near-perfect season, the 28-year-old Dane knows everything needs to go to plan.
“I want to be there with the best possible preparation and shape I can be in, and try to go for the win again,” he said.
“My biggest goal will be of course to try to win the Tour for a third time,” he said. “And also I will be at the Vuelta. It’s one of the biggest races in the world and one that I really would love to win as well.”
For better or worse, wherever Vingegaard goes, Pogačar won’t be far behind.
The crash that changed everything
Vingegaard remains the only rider to dethrone Pogačar at the Tour de France.
In 2022, he executed a tactical masterpiece, and in 2023, he delivered a dominant repeat performance to cement his status as a grand tour force.
But 2024 held a different story. A season started with a bang with early wins at Gran Camiño and Tirreno-Adriatico was derailed in a moment of disaster.
Vingegaard’s high-speed crash in the Itzulia Basque Country in April scrambled the script, and he’s grateful he escaped without even more serious injuries.
“The injuries were very bad,” he said. “I had seven broken ribs, a broken sternum, my collarbone was broken into three or four pieces, and both of my lungs were punctured. I was in intensive care for eight days and in the hospital for 12. That says enough about how bad it was.
“To be honest, I think it was a lot worse than most people actually know. Just making it to the Tour was a victory, and being second and winning a stage felt incredible. It was something I’m really proud of,” Vingegaard said.
Vingegaard fora de temporada não depila as pernas haha pic.twitter.com/SL5SkDIerI
— O País Do Ciclismo (@opaisdociclismo) January 2, 2025
A doubly motivated Vingegaard also carries lessons into 2025.
“It taught me that it can happen to anyone,” he said of crashing. “Even if you think you’re a good bike handler, it can still happen. And I also learned that with less-than-ideal preparation, I can still perform well.”
Can Visma stop UAE again?
While Vingegaard sat down Tuesday for Visma’s annual media day, Pogačar was out there training even harder.
A string of videos show the Slovenian ripping up the local climbs around the winter training camps near Calpe.
Everyone inside the organization knows that Pogačar is the man to beat.
Grischa Niermann, who moves up the team hierarchy as sport manager, admits that UAE Team Emirates and Pogačar set a new benchmark in 2024, forcing Visma to rethink their approach for the upcoming season.
“We have a lot of homework to do, especially in how we want to win the Tour de France,” Niermann said. “We had very good tactics in the two years that we did win.
“That doesn’t mean we were not good last year, but obviously Tadej was the strongest rider in the race. We have to find a way to beat him this season.”
“Jonas Vingegaard apunta a la Volta Ciclista a Catalunya” El ciclista danés Jonas Vingegaard debutaría este año en la Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, que esta temporada se disputa del 24 al 30 de marzo. https://t.co/eoCFe8MUfh pic.twitter.com/BwRtyVN0EI
— ⚡MazaCiclismo⚡ (@RuedaPedal) January 11, 2025
Niermann noted that misfortune played a significant role in the team’s struggles last season, with crashes, illnesses, and setbacks affecting not only Vingegaard, but also Wout van Aert, Sepp Kuss, and others.
“Last year we had a lot of bad luck. We really have to investigate into ourselves into where we can improve, a lot of little things, but hopefully have a good outcome,” he said.
“We saw a very dominant Pogačar last year and a very dominant UAE, so we have to chase them or make sure that we are getting closer, getting to their level, and that we can compete with them in every race in all of the calendar,” Niermann said.
Vingegaard and Co. did it before.
The looming question for 2025 is Pogačar truly unbeatable?
A healthy and fit Vingegaard is confident he can win again.