Jonas Vingegaard calls out dangerous roads at Paris-Nice: "I hope the rest of the week won’t be like that"

Jonas Vingegaard has begun his 2026 season today at Paris-Nice but his feedback from the opening stage was not the best. In fact, the Danish rider did not stay silent in regards to what he felt was a route that put the riders in danger, and has shared that several of his colleagues felt the same at the opening stage of Paris-Nice.

“It was stressful, I would say. There was a lot of stress out there, and luckily, we made it through safely out there," VIngegaard said in words to TV2 following stage 1. "There were a lot of crashes today. I just hope everyone is okay. It was my first race day this year, and I’m thinking a little bit that I hope that all race days aren’t going to be like this, because then it would be terrible.”

The Dane did not hold back on a day that on paper, looked rather calm. The stage was designed for the sprinters, although a set of small climbs towards the end created potential for attacks. The Dane was visible and had to get out of the saddle to respond to an acceleration of Ion Izagirre on the final climb; but otherwise he was hidden from the wind. But his Team Visma | Lease a Bike teammates were not, having spent in fact large kilometers at the head of the peloton so as to keep him in position and away from dangers.

The final corner did see two crashes, one of Lenny Martínez and a second one involving Carlos Rodríguez - two of the biggest GC contenders for the week. This ultimately has an effect on the overall classification, and Vingegaard worries that he could've gone down.

He has cast negative words on the route choice from race organizers, and has openly said that the same doesn't happen over the following stages. “Maybe I’m getting old. I don’t know. But I talked to some people out there, and they said that fortunately not all races have been like this. I hope the rest of the week won’t be like that either.”