Jonas Vingegaard slammed as "downright embarrassing" after Euros DNF by Danish icon: "It doesn't reflect well on him"

Jonas Vingegaard’s long-awaited debut for Denmark’s elite men’s national team at the 2025 European Championships was met with crushing criticism on Sunday, as former Tour de France king of the mountains Michael Rasmussen labelled the performance “downright embarrassing” and accused the two-time Tour champion of not taking the assignment seriously.

“What he delivered yesterday at the European Championships was downright embarrassing to watch,” Rasmussen said bluntly in the Viaplay studio during his analysis. “He hasn’t taken the assignment seriously. That’s obvious. It doesn’t reflect well on him, because there are plenty of riders who would’ve loved the opportunity to ride this race.”

Vingegaard was dropped with more than 100 kilometres still to go in the race on Sunday afternoon, on a hilly course that had been widely tipped as suiting his capabilities. As soon as the pace was lifted even slightly however, the Danish leader slipped out the back of the peloton — and never returned. He abandoned the race shortly afterwards, continuing a trend: Vingegaard has not completed a one-day race since the spring of 2022.

After the race, Vingegaard offered two reasons for his sub-par showing: he’d had “a bad day,” and had been forced to take an unexpected two-week break from training following his overall win at the Vuelta a Espana, due to fatigue and recovery needs.

But Rasmussen wasn’t convinced. “I just can’t understand how he can say it was a bad day,” Rasmussen continued. “He knew full well when he came to the Euros that he couldn’t even dent a soft hat. He said himself that he hadn’t trained for two weeks.”

Rasmussen even went further, calling it “enormously naïve” if Vingegaard genuinely believed he could perform at a high level under those circumstances.

His criticism was echoed by Bjarne Riis, who also questioned Vingegaard’s preparation, saying the Dane had simply not trained enough to realistically compete. “He didn't take it seriously enough,” Riis told Feltet.dk, suggesting Vingegaard should have considered withdrawing, as Michael Valgren had done before this year’s World Championships.

While former pros didn’t hold back, Denmark’s national federation took a more supportive tone post-race. Head coach Michael Morkov and elite sport director Morten Bennekou acknowledged the performance was far below expectations — but stressed that Vingegaard’s presence was still valuable. “It’s been a great pleasure to have Jonas Vingegaard with us,” said Morkov. “He’s contributed enormously — not just to the elite team, but also to the younger riders. I’m quite sure he’s had a good experience with the team despite how the race unfolded.”

Bennekou added: “He was out so early that we can all agree it wasn’t there today. But we all thought it was worth trying — he did, his teammates did, and we did.”

Both Bennekou and Morkov said they hoped it was just the beginning of Vingegaard’s career in national colours. Sunday’s race was his first-ever appearance for Denmark’s elite road team, despite his success on the sport’s biggest stages.