Jonas Vingegaard confirmed for 2025 Paris-Nice season start - Dane joined by Giro block

In 2025 Jonas Vingegaard had his spring campaign ended due to a crash at Paris-Nice. It wasn't in the Dane's plan to race it this year; but after another injury hampered his preparation this winter, the change was made. The Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader begins the race as its main headliner.

His main contenders for the overall win will be the likes of Juan Ayuso, Oscar Onley and Brandon McNulty. The French race is missing some of its main figures such as João Almeida who is was not only set to challenge Vingegaard here; but also at the Volta a Catalunya and Giro d'Italia.

“I feel good. I’ve had a strong winter, training has gone very well, and we’re starting with a strong team," Vingegaard said in a press release "Of course, the first race of the season is always exciting, and the competition has more race kilometers in the legs, but I’m really looking forward to riding this beautiful race. Whenever I line up at the start, I always want to go for the win.”

Vingegaard suffered a small training crash whilst riding in Malaga in early February which, combined with an illness, saw him pull out on the UAE Tour which was initially planned out. However, it does not seem like it has made a big difference in his overall preparation for the Giro d'Italia - Tour de France combination that will follow later in the year.

“We want to go for a strong general classification and be in contention for the win. Paris-Nice is always a nervous race, so it’s important to stay alert in every stage," team DS Marc Reef has said. “The course is tricky, but I don’t think there are any extremely tough mountain stages where big gaps can be made. That makes the team time trial extremely important.”

It is a course that lacks high mountains, and the final stage to Nice has also been made less difficult. Hence, Vingegaard does not start the race as the outright favourite, and may perhaps be slightly behind Lidl-Trek leader and Volta ao Algarve winner Juan Ayuso.

“Jonas comes out of a good training block. Of course, he faced a setback that forced him to miss the UAE Tour, but he’s trained well and is in excellent shape. How that compares to the competition remains to be seen, but we fully expect to be in contention for the overall victory.”

“We’ve studied the course carefully and already trained in our formation. We have a very strong team with plenty of powerful riders, but the course is quite technical," Reef said of the TTT, which can be key for the overall win. "Still, I expect that with our experience we can put in a strong performance and get Jonas to the finish as quickly as possible.”

Vingegaard will be joined by four riders who will join him at the Giro d'Italia block, making for an important week of adaptation: Victor Campenaerts, Wilco Kelderman, Edoardo Affini and Davide Piganzoli - the latter will race with Vingegaard for the first time.

The lineup is complete by Axel Zingle who, like last year, should have freedom to pursue some stage results; and fellow Frenchman Bruno Armirail who makes his debut for the team but is also racing the Tour de France last year.