Is Jonas Vingegaard heading to Liege–Bastogne–Liege to race Pogacar? “If he races, it is to compete for the win”
Cycling
Jonas Vingegaard’s 2025 season has yet to gather any momentum. After suffering a concussion and abandoning Paris–Nice last month, the two-time Tour de France winner has remained absent from racing, missing his planned return at the Volta a Catalunya.
That race, ultimately won by Primoz Roglic, would have provided a valuable indicator of form ahead of the summer, but instead, Team Visma | Lease a Bike are recalibrating Vingegaard’s build-up to his biggest goal: the Tour de France.
So when will we see the Danish champion in action again? And more intriguingly, when could the cycling world be treated to another head-to-head clash between Vingegaard and his great rival, Tadej Pogacar?
For now, the answers remain fluid. Speaking to Wielerflits, Visma’s head of racing Grischa Niermann confirmed that Vingegaard’s recovery is progressing positively, but emphasised that everything remains subordinate to Tour de France preparation.
“We would have liked to have Jonas at the start [in Catalunya], of course. That was not possible, but things are definitely going in the right direction for him,” said Niermann. “It is true that we are now looking at what is possible for him. That depends on when Jonas really feels completely fit again. And whether we can then fit an extra race into his program. But it goes without saying that preparing for the Tour has absolute priority for us.”
There’s a sense of caution, and realism, in Niermann’s comments. Unlike some of his rivals who have already banked early-season race days, Vingegaard’s return will not be rushed. Visma are clearly unwilling to compromise his summer goals by squeezing in a race for the sake of it. As Niermann explained, talk of specific comeback events is premature, especially given logistical constraints and the team’s broader race calendar.
“I read somewhere in a sports newspaper which races are an option for Jonas. But a number of those possibilities are not on our calendar at all. I also think we do not have enough riders in our selection to suddenly fit a new stage race into our program. But of course there are options if we later think that Jonas needs an extra race. It has to be in function of the Tour, that is the most important thing for us.”
It’s a pragmatic approach to say the least, and it is true that Vingegaard has never been a rider who needs heavy racing to find form. His traditional formula (altitude training camps and a selective race calendar) has worked wonders over the past two years, which is especially impressive considering in 2024 the first time he raced after his spring crash was at the Tour.
Yet the enforced pause caused by his crash this spring has forced Visma to revisit their plans. Niermann made clear that a new schedule is being built with his trainers, and that any race added will only be considered if it meaningfully contributes to Tour readiness.
That mindset, of racing only when in winning shape, is central to Vingegaard’s philosophy, and one that Visma are clearly committed to preserving.
“It’s always great when Jonas rides a race,” Niermann continued. “Normally, if he participates, it means he’s good enough to compete for the win in that race. That’s in line with what we want: to win races. On the other hand, Jonas is our big focus for the summer, for the Tour de France. And we also have him in mind to perhaps ride the Vuelta a España. Then you have to set priorities.”
With those priorities in mind, the team is wary of overloading his calendar or disrupting altitude training blocks. Niermann was clear that any extra race would need to serve a specific purpose: sharpening race sharpness without compromising the physical foundations built at altitude.
"We’re not going to send him to races that make it more difficult to go on altitude training. That’s not how it works, of course. If he does an extra race, it has to contribute to the Tour."
Liege-Bastogne-Liege?
Naturally, attention has turned to the races on the calendar that could potentially suit Vingegaard’s return, most notably the Ardennes Classics and the Tour de Romandie. While the Walloon races would mark a departure from his usual approach, they do offer competitive intensity without the length of a full stage race.
But again, the message is one of caution. “We are looking into that,” said Niermann, referring to options like Liège–Bastogne–Liège or Romandie. “But we are not going to send Jonas to a race at half strength. If he races, it is to compete for the win and he must therefore be 100% fit.”
The mere prospect of Vingegaard heading to Liege to face off with Pogacar is enough to get us cycling fans talking in anticipation. Could we finally be about to see the two great GC riders of their era go head to head at a monument?
🇧🇪 #DDV25
— Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@vismaleaseabike) April 1, 2025
Racing across Flanders tomorrow! 💪 pic.twitter.com/cnedQFnE9U
The problem with forcing ideas in the hope to create buzz or desperation to be the first with « news » and get copied is that if and when things do get announced, nobody can enjoy anything anymore out of built-up expectations and if it doesn’t get announced, either nobody cares or people get disappointed or even angry from having their hopes (expectations) crushed. Enjoy what tou still can.
Regarding one point in the article: Vingegaard and Pogacar raced against each other at Monuments in the past - Il Lombardia and Liege, from 2020 to 2022. Pogacar's results are 3, 1, 1, and 1, while Vingegaard's are 84, 28, 14, and 16, respectively in the same races. But Vingegaard hasn't raced a Monument since 2022.
Just in
Play for FREE! Fantasy Tour of Flanders
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
Popular news
Latest comments
- i’m such a sucker for those group-hug, happy ending moments between competitors, largely because it’s so WASN’T that way in my younger, stronger days. (on that note, i have this hope that somewhere down the road, maybe fifteen or twenty years, a middle aged wout and mathieu will go for a pleasure ride together in flanders, and reminisce about the days when they were the young, strong monsters that stalked the cobbles.)OCexile05-04-2025
- Just like Dwars door Vlaanderen, the Ronde van Vlaanderen was/is NOT on MAX. Get your facts straight.Ben04-04-2025
- You might bounce more for the same power, but not the same speed. Sending 20 kgs over a jump at 20 kph will fly just as far as 10 kgs at the same speed. Again, Galileo demonstrated this.acem8204-04-2025
- So, you're saying that doing a bunch of small hops on a bike is easier if you're heavier? Why do people buy lighter bikes, then? Why do they generally feel better and faster? An appeal to "rhythm" is not helpful either, as the right "rhythm" might be on the lighter or heavier side of things, and as it varies, it's likely a wash either way. Then we are left with the physics truth that it takes less power to lift lighter things than heavier things.acem8204-04-2025
- No, weight doesn't affect the ability to go into the wind at all. It's all CdA vs power at that point. For example, it's "obvious" that a heavier object falls faster than a lighter one. But, absent wind resistance, it's not true (Galileo demonstrated this). An appeal to "obviousness" doesn't matter when the physics is clear. And yes, you have to be able to hold everything else constant, or you can't determine anything! So, imagine a 300 watt rider at 80 kgs with a CdA of 2.0, then imagine that same rider at 70 kgs with a CdA of 2.0. (Assume ideal tire pressure for both, same bike.) Which one can ride over a bumpy road fastest? The lighter one, as he doesn't have to lift as much. That's also why when they test bikes on 5 star cobbled sectors, the MTB goes faster than even a cobble-build road bike. Even though rolling resistance is higher on a flat road, and the CdA is junk, it smooths out the cobbles, allowing the person to not lift as much as they otherwise would.acem8204-04-2025
- I disagree. If you have lower weight, you will bounce more at the same speed, meaning that you will spend more time in the air and shorter time on the ground, as a consequence, when you are on the ground you have to produce more force for the same speedvappaxbipmv04-04-2025
- That’s not quite true, even steep climbs and sudden gradient changes can be considered as remaining tangential to the wheel whereas the occasional dip between cobbles a wheel drops into cannot, as such riding over cobbles can become like a permanent surmounting of small obstacles that hit back into your wheel slowing you drastically if you don’t have the right rhythm to “fly” on the mounds, here again the greater the momentum the less these obstacles reduce your speed. But, it is but one factor, you cannot decide on this alone. Like with natural surface ripple formation on desert tracks used by vehicles, there is an optimal speed range to efficiently pass over such surfaces, too fast or slow and your car gets shaken to pieces from the “harmonics” in the vibrations caused. Pretty sure the same applies to riding on cobbles.Mistermaumau04-04-2025
- I am saying I have an open mind at the moment for your cobbles theory but cannot agree with your wind statement (and by extrapolation sprinting since that implies speeds where wind is by far the limiting factor). Had you argued all things not being equal I could have agreed with you but if we thus assume 2 objets of the same size and speed but with differing weights, it is completely obvious that the lighter one will suffer faster in the wind. Extrapolate to the extreme, drop stuff off cliffs or just remember your momentum equations to verify. Now, obviously in real life we have to assume riders of different weights won’t have the same wind hitting surface but you cannot generalise at all then as you can have very unaerodynamic light riders and very aerodynamic heavy ones because it isn’t weight that defines CdA, Teslas have an incredible CdA and are ridiculously heavy, and someone like Harry Levreyssen is a Tesla in cycling.Mistermaumau04-04-2025
- When Roglic beat Geraint Thomas on the last day's TT at the Giro, I remember just how unbelievably emotional his team was. One guy, I forget who, German rider I think, was interviewed and was nearly speechless with a really drawn out "fuuuuuuuuuck it's incredible" comment. And then something even more amazing happened. Geraint Thomas came through the ranks of the Jumbo Visma riders and congratulated them all. True, honest, sincere, sportsmanlike, and celebratory of what had been achieved. Here he was, getting second, and he meant it. And cycling these days is like that, as you say - the way Pogacar hugged Matthews in Quebec, the way Matthews congratulated Pogacar in Montreal, on and on they honor and respect each other. It's pretty great.RidesHills04-04-2025
- Not sure exactly what you are saying, but if you're implying that being heavier is helpful if you're going against the wind or sprinting, then no, it isn't. Ceteris paribus (all else held equal) being a lighter cyclist is always better, save downhill. The reason why heavier cyclists do relatively better than lighter ones on flatter courses is because they will have to have a higher power than the lighter cyclist in order to have any chance at all against them, and flatter courses mean that the lighter cyclist has nowhere to display the better power to weight ratio, meaning that significant ratio is power to CdA, which is usually an advantage to the heavier cyclist.acem8204-04-2025