Jonas Vingegaard back to his best? Nicki Sorensen hails Catalunya win as end of two-year injury nightmare: “After the crash he was missing something... Now he’s back even better”

Jonas Vingegaard’s dominant overall victory at the Volta a Catalunya has sparked a familiar question across the peloton. Not whether he is winning again, but whether he has finally returned to the level he held before his devastating crash in the Basque Country in 2024.

Across the week in Catalunya, the Dane did more than simply defend a race lead. He imposed himself on the race. Two stage victories, repeated control in the mountains and the ability to respond instantly to every acceleration from Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz underlined a rider back in command rather than one reacting under pressure. Even when Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe attempted to isolate him and attack in numbers on the decisive climbs, Vingegaard never looked vulnerable.

Speaking to TV2, former Tour de France stage winner Nicki Sorensen pointed to those performances as a clear turning point. “After the crash in the ITzulia Basque Country, I don’t think we saw the same Vingegaard until the end of last year. He was missing something, and I don’t know what it was. But it wasn’t a Vingegaard at the same level as before the crash. Now he might be there again – or even better.”

That authority was visible not just in the results but in how the race unfolded around him. Vingegaard dictated the key moments, choosing when to follow, when to counter and, ultimately, when to end the race with his own acceleration.

The scale of Vingegaard’s crash in April 2024 has always been central to understanding his trajectory. Broken ribs, a punctured lung, a fractured collarbone and time spent in intensive care left lasting questions about how long a full recovery would truly take.

A leading voice in Danish sports physiology, Thue Kvorning believes the answer may be measured not in months, but years. “Tissue, muscle tissue and bone tissue never fully heal back to exactly what they were before. You can measure that you are back in tests, but there can still be a few per cent missing.”

At the very highest level of cycling, those small margins can define everything. “When you are at the level Jonas Vingegaard is, it is the small margins that matter. Those few per cent can make the difference in certain situations,” Kvorning explained.

That perspective helps explain the uneven nature of Vingegaard’s performances across 2024 and into 2025, where results remained strong on paper but were often accompanied by a sense that something was still not fully aligned.

In Catalunya, however, those marginal losses were far harder to detect. On steep summit finishes, he matched and then surpassed his closest rivals. On shorter, punchier climbs, he remained consistently well-positioned. Even under repeated pressure, there was no visible dip.

For much of the past two seasons, Vingegaard’s focus appeared centred on regaining what had been lost. The process of recovery, both physical and mental, shaped his racing calendar and performances. Sorensen’s analysis suggests that the phase may now be complete.

The significance of that shift cannot be overstated. A rider returning to a previous level is one thing. A rider moving beyond it, as Sorensen hints, is another entirely.

With the Giro d’Italia approaching and a Tour de France showdown with Tadej Pogacar looming later in the summer, the timing is equally notable. Vingegaard is no longer simply rebuilding. He may now be progressing again.

After two years defined by recovery and recalibration, Catalunya has provided the clearest indication yet that the Danish rider is once again operating at, or even beyond, his former peak.