Jonas Vingegaard may have ended his 2024 season at the recent Tour de Pologne. After focusing fully on the Tour de France since November, overcoming very good and very bad moments, the Danish rider will now travel home to be at the birth of his second child and is unlikely to race again until 2025.
At least that's what we hear from the Gazzetta dello Sport. That he will not race again this year neither with Visma - Lease a Bike nor with the Danish national team despite the fact that this season the Zurich World Championships are relatively well suited to the climbers and he could play a role in the finale.
In this way, Vingegaard likely ends his season with the following results: the Dane opened his campaign in O Gran Camiño looking to start getting in shape to defend his title as the reigning winner of the Tour de France for the second consecutive year.
The Dane's goal was to score a historic third consecutive victory in the Grande Boucle and overtake Pogacar in the number of victories in the world's most prestigious race. In the Galician race he swept to victory in the overall, plus three stage wins, the points classification and the mountains classification.
From there, Jonas Vingegaard headed to Tirreno-Adriatico, one of the most prestigious one-week races on the calendar. There he also won the general classification along with the mountains classification, adding two stage wins along the way on stages 5 and 6.
The race that changed everything for Vingegaard
Less than a month later, Vingegaard was back on the scene, this time in the Itzulia Basque Country. The Visma - Lease a Bike leader was in spectacular form, and it looked like he was going to beat Pogacar again at the Tour de France. But that brutal crash on stage 4 left him hospitalized after first being immobilized and wearing an oxygen mask at the time of the massive fall.
From there the Tour de France seemed to even be unlikely at times. However, a miraculous recovery resulted in Jonas Vingegaard arriving in time for the Grand Départ in Florence, and the two-time winner of the race was able to compete in his title defense.
However, as expected, Vingegaard was no match for Tadej Pogacar who has been above everyone else this season, who came to the Grande Boucle in top form after having already won the Giro d'Italia. Still, his performance was very creditable: finishing 2nd overall and with a stage win beating Pogacar himself in a reduced sprint between the two cycling stars on stage 11.
After that, Jonas Vingegaard was not to return until the Clásica San Sebastián, which he did not finish after getting dropped in the decisive climb of the race. He didn't take part in the Paris Olympics, and focused on taking the overall win in the Tour de Pologne. Finally in Poland he took the overall victory without needing to take any stage wins along the way. With month and a half left of the season, he will likely take a much needed break from racing and training before starting to focus on the next season early on.
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