"It became clear that Jonas lacked the explosiveness to respond to Pogačar" - Visma's head of performance on getting Vingegaard back to his top level

Jonas Vingegaard won the 2022 and 2023 Tour de France editions and as thr 2024 season began, he looked as strong as ever and a Tour de France battle was being highly anticipated. His miraculous return to competition and good form after the Itzulia Basque Country crash was impressive, but Team Visma | Lease a Bike admit that he lacked some elements of the ideal preparation.

"There was a big difference. We focused on making him stronger in terms of muscle mass last winter. Last year Jonas was lighter than ever in the Tour de France, but mainly because he had lost so much muscle mass after his injuries," Mathieu Heijboer, head of Visma's performance team, told Wielerevue. "It was impossible to make up for that in a short time if you also have to focus on endurance." Choices had to be made in the Visma camp on where to improve Vingegaard's level into the Tour, and although the stage win and second place proved it may have been the right choice, it was a losing battle against an unbeatable Pogacar.

Read also

Can Tadej Pogacar win Paris-Roubaix one day? "My answer is yes. Why wouldn’t he?" says Italian legend

"Pogacar was better on Plateau de Beille, but in many stages it became clear that Jonas lacked the explosiveness to respond to Pogačar's accelerations and was subsequently unable to close the gap," he admits. Overall the Slovenian didn't step a foot wrong throughout the entire 21 days, and in the form he had it proved to be impossible to beat him over the course of three weeks. On a few days the Dane did manage to match or even beat Pogacar, but he was always on the back foot when it came to responding to his vicious attacks.

But Visma know what needed to be worked on, and the preparation towards the 2025 season began in late October, potentially with the same goal as in earl 2024. "We want to get back to the Jonas of the spring of 2024, because that was even better than the Jonas of 2023," Heijboer claims.

"But you can't underestimate how much time it takes to get that back when you've been out of action for 12 days (he refers to the time Vingegaard spent in the hospital last spring, ed.). It will be difficult to beat Pogačar, but there are aspects that were really underdeveloped in Jonas and we will take time to work on them. Those are our starting points."

Read also

Sep Vanmarcke compares Classics superstars: "Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar are naturally much calmer. While Wout van Aert experiences more stress"

UCI Rankings Rider Update | Santiago Buitrago, João Almeida and Kevin Vauquelin score big points in Valenciana and Besseges

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Unlock your ultimate cycling experience—subscribe today for access to the latest cycling news

Subscribe