Jonas Vingegaard explains tough decision to skip the Giro d'Italia in 2025: "Two years ago, I really liked it when I did the Tour and the Vuelta in the same year"

Despite much speculation over the past few months, Jonas Vingegaard will not be making a Giro d'Italia debut in 2025. Instead, the Danish leader of Team Visma | Lease a Bike is set to replicate his calendar of 2023 and combine general classification challenges at both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana this year.

"We spoke about what we wanted to do. And at first, we may be thinking of the Giro, but then we said that we wanted to give it a shot for the Tour de France to be as good possible there and then," the 28-year-old, two-time Maillot Jaune winner explains of the decision in conversation with Eurosport. "That (the Tour de France ed.) would be the goal. And then we would see afterwards."

As mentioned, this won't be the first time in his career that Vingegaard takes on a Tour de France - Vuelta a Espana double. In 2023, the Dane took overall victory at the Tour, before finishing 2nd behind his teammate Sepp Kuss in Spain. "To be honest, two years ago, I really liked it when I did the Tour and the Vuelta in the same year," Vingegaard recalls. "So that's also the reason."

Team Visma | Lease a Bike's proposed lineup for the Tour de France has been widely reported with the likes of Matteo Jorgenson, Tiesj Benoot, Simon Yates, Sepp Kuss, Victor Campenaerts, Christophe Laporte and Wout van Aert set to support Vingegaard. Once again, the rivals are expected to be the likes of Vingegaard's arch-rival Tadej Pogacar, former teammate Primoz Roglic and the double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel most notably. Clearly though, Vingegaard is confident in his own chances later this summer, regardless of the levels of his rivals come the Grand Depart of the 2025 Tour de France.