Jonas Vingegaard stated the obvious on Thursday that he’s racing to win the Vuelta a España.
With or without Tadej Pogačar at the start line Saturday in Torino, the Visma-Lease a Bike superstar has only one thing on his mind, and that’s to claim the Vuelta’s red jersey in Madrid on September 14.
“I came here to win the Vuelta. That’s my goal and the team’s goal,” Vingegaard said bluntly on the eve of the race. “Of course, there can be different scenarios, but winning is the definition of success for me here. If I do that, then it will be a success.”
The determined Dane enters the 2025 Vuelta as the overwhelming favorite backed by the Vuelta’s strongest team, so what could go wrong?
With Remco Evenepoel and Pogačar both absent, and four-time winner Primož Roglič sitting this one out, the road is open for Vingegaard to add the Spanish grand tour to his palmarès.
He already has two Tours de France, and Visma-Lease a Bike has won four of the past six Vueltas.
Still, he refuses to call it a cake walk.
‘Small illness, no worlds’
The Dane also confirmed he will not race the road worlds in Rwanda, and instead make a run at the European championships in October.
There was hope in Denmark that he’d race his first elite men’s worlds, but Vingegaard said now is not the time.
“We decided not to go to the worlds. It doesn’t really fit in,” he said. “We decided instead to go for the Europeans. To race the worlds this year, you need to be really fresh, it requires a lot. With not knowing how I’ll come out of the Vuelta, we thought it was better to skip it. I still want to do the European championships, and then have some time after the Vuelta to focus on that.”
This Vuelta comes barely a month after the Tour de France, where Vingegaard battled Pogačar all the way to Paris but fell short with second for the second year in a row.
Vingegaard also revealed he came down with what he called a “small illness” after the Tour, but insists he’s fully recovered.
OFFICIAL! NO WORLDS FOR JONAS!
Jonas Vingegaard announced in his Vuelta press conference that he will not ride the World Championships in Rwanda!
He will not ride also Lombardia and his last race of the season will be European Championships in France.
This is what he said:… pic.twitter.com/PzUMFv3Tgo
— Lukáš Ronald Lukács (@lucasaganronald) August 21, 2025
Vingegaard believes his short training block in France’s Annecy at the foot of the French Alps set him up perfectly for all challengers at the Vuelta.
“It’s hard to say. We’ll see in the first stages if I’m at 90, 95, or 100 percent. The Vuelta came very shortly after the Tour this year, so it’s not easy to say,” Vingegaard said. “We’ll just have to wait and see. I did pretty much everything I wanted training-wise and I think I had the best possible preparation for this race.
“I think Juan Ayuso and João Almeida will be the main contenders. They have two cards to play, which makes them very strong. Carapaz was also a contender but pulled out already.”
One name missing is Pogačar, who is Vingegaard’s grand tour bête noire.
“It’s always nice to race against him, but also sometimes nice when he’s not there,” he said. “Of course it’s nicer to win when he is in the race, but you want to win no matter what.”
When asked to elaborate, he countered, “I think I’ve said enough about that before.”
Avoiding the 2023 soap opera
One thing Visma wants to avoid is a repeat of the 2023 soap opera that enveloped the team and saw Roglič and Vingegaard attacking Sepp Kuss before the team reached a detente to carry red into Madrid.
This year, there is no ambiguity about who leads the troops.
“This year we have a clear leader with Jonas,” said sports director Grischa Niermann when asked by Velo. “We also have strong guys like Sepp and Matteo, but Jonas is the leader. How we play it out, you’ll see in the race.”
Kuss and Matteo Jorgenson join a deep squad that will be backing Vingegaard from the start.
Also read: Why Visma won’t see a repeat of the 2023 Vuelta mutiny
That 2023 edition was complicated not only by internal team politics but also by a first-week illness of Vingegaard.
He wouldn’t take it back, but he’s hoping for a smoother ride in 2025.
“I think we can all be pretty happy with how it ended. 1-2-3 in the general classification has never happened before, and it will probably be many years before it happens again. It’s something we can all be very proud of,” Vingegaard said.
“For me, I got sick at the start of that race, not feeling super well, then got better later on and back to my normal level. Hopefully this year I won’t get sick in the beginning and can be there from the start.”
Pressure, burnout, and longevity
With Pogačar sitting this one out, the spotlight will be focused completely on Vingegaard.
He shrugs off any suggestions of extra pressure getting to him.
“No, I don’t feel there’s more pressure. The Tour de France is the race with the most media, the most attention, the most pressure. Compared to that, this doesn’t feel like more,” Vingegaard said. “Of course I’m one of the big favorites, so there is some pressure, but I’m just happy to be here and going for the win.”
If being the top favorite carries weight, he intends to press it to his advantage.
“If you’re the top favorite, it means you’re a good bike rider. Hopefully I can turn that into an advantage and show I’m the best guy as well.”
Alberto Contador labels Jonas Vingegaard as “the clear favourite” to win the 80th edition of La Vuelta in 2025 pic.twitter.com/f3M1t3KcPt
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) August 21, 2025
The Dane also addressed the burnout debate sparked by Pogačar’s recent comments that he’s already thinking about retirement.
“In general, cycling has changed in the last years. We perform earlier in our careers now. I’m turning 29, and 10 years ago it was normal only to start really performing at this age,” said the 29-year-old. “Now there’s a lot more pressure earlier, and in some ways it’s more tiring.
“I don’t think we’ll see many riders continuing until 40 anymore. There are also so many altitude camps, so much racing, a lot of time away from home. It takes a toll, that’s just how it is.”
Vingegaard leaves no doubt about what’s at stake.
“It’s always been a goal of mine to win this race,” he said of the Vuelta. “It would be very, very nice for me if I could win it.”
The Dane has won the Tour de France twice, and he’s dominated one-week stage races, but Spain’s red jersey still eludes him. Over the next three weeks and 21 stages, Vingegaard will try to change that.
“I came here to win the Vuelta,” he repeated. “That’s my goal and the team’s goal.”