“Jonas Vingegaard has reached a point where he wants to win everything” - Danish expert expects aggressive Visma leader at Paris-Nice 2026
Cycling
Jonas Vingegaard will finally begin his 2026 season this weekend at Paris-Nice after a winter that has already tested his preparations before a single race has been ridden.
A crash during training in Spain and a subsequent illness forced the Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader to delay his campaign and withdraw from the race that had originally been expected to open his season.
The result is an unusual scenario for one of the peloton’s most controlled planners: his first race of the year, arriving in March at one of the WorldTour’s most demanding week-long stage races.
For Danish cycling expert Anders Lund, however, the more revealing story may lie in how Vingegaard now approaches races like Paris-Nice at this stage of his career. “Jonas seems to have reached a point in his career where he wants to win everything,” Lund said in conversation with Eurosport.dk.
Paris-Nice as part of a bigger season plan
Paris-Nice has long served as one of the most important early indicators of stage racing form. The eight-day race blends chaotic flat stages, tactical team time trials and decisive climbing in the mountains above Nice, a combination that tends to reward riders capable of competing for the sport’s biggest prizes later in the year.
That is precisely the context in which Lund views Vingegaard’s return. “The big plan is, overall, to win the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France. So in that way Paris-Nice is a piece of that puzzle in order to reach the form and the goals.”
In other words, the French stage race is not simply about results in early March. It forms part of a broader build-up to a season centred on cycling’s two biggest Grand Tours.
Yet Lund believes Vingegaard’s ambitions extend beyond simply preparing for those headline targets. “He wants to win as much as he can, because he knows it will not last forever and he will not stay at this level indefinitely.”
That perspective, Lund suggests, helps explain the Dane’s increasingly assertive approach to racing over the past year, where opportunities for victory have rarely been allowed to pass without a response.
“It is both a way to reach his goals and the form that allows him to win two Grand Tours in a season, but it is also a goal in itself to win as much as possible.”
A demanding race to begin the season
Paris-Nice is rarely a gentle introduction to the racing calendar. Crosswinds, nervous peloton positioning and unpredictable early-season weather frequently make the opening stages among the most chaotic of the year.
For that reason alone, Lund believes Vingegaard’s presence on the startlist carries its own message.
“I do not think he would choose that race and start there unless he felt fit for fight, because it is a brutal opening and a hectic cycling race, especially in the first few days,” he notes. “So I also think it is a positive sign that he is on the startlist, because Jonas, as we know him, does not line up unless he is ready.”
The race dynamic itself may even suit him. Positioning battles, crosswinds and technical racing often play a decisive role before the mountains arrive later in the week.
“Vingegaard is good in the positioning battles. He is usually like a fish in water. If he decides he wants to be in the first echelon, it is very rare that he misses it.”
With the terrain becoming progressively harder as the race moves south toward the Alps, the event provides a natural test of both form and resilience after his disrupted start to the year.
Whether Paris-Nice becomes a target in its own right or simply the first step toward bigger ambitions later in the season remains to be seen. But if Lund’s reading of Vingegaard’s mindset is correct, the Dane is unlikely to approach the race cautiously.
A rider who “wants to win everything” rarely does.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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