"Being the defending Tour winner is always hard but I’m up for the challenge" - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard has been under the spotlight in recent weeks as he tackled the Tour de France criteriums in Asia, and has given further insight into his thoughts on the most recent and upcoming Tours.

“I think we prepared really well and I was in the best form I’ve ever been in. I was thinking that I had a really good shot at winning the Tour de France this year," Vingegaard said in an interview with FloBikes. "Of course, anything can happen, it's the Tour de France, you can crash, you can lose time."

He's shared many of his thoughts in recent weeks on multiple interviews, and has talked about the influence crashes can have in the race. He almost lost the race in the third week on two occasions, in the stage into Hautacam and the final time-trial, both occasions where he was taking risks in the descents.

"The Tour de France is hard, anything can happen. If you’re lucky if you get through it without crashing. I’ve done it twice and I think I've crashed three or four times," the Dane continued. "You’ll go down at one point and it's about how you get back up.”

He revealed how in the first summit finish of the race he understood that he had the level to win the Tour and was within shot of it: “I think the first one was La Planches des Belle Filles. I thought it was more suitable for Tadej but I also had the feeling that he wasn’t stronger than I was that day. So I gained a lot of confidence for the longer climbs," Vingegaard said.

His decision on the 2023 Grand Tours is yet to be decided. “Being the defending Tour winner is always hard but I’m up for the challenge," he hinted again however. "I know it’ll be harder and harder to win it but that’s part of the challenge and now I have the experience of winning on my side. I know I just have to focus on myself, to be the best I can at the 2023 Tour de France.”