"Jonas Vingegaard will decide for himself whether or not he will go to the Tour de France" according to Merijn Zeeman
Cycling
Arguably the biggest topic of the minds of cycling fans across the world currently, is whether or not Jonas Vingegaard will be at the start line of the 2024 Tour de France in Florence to defend his two successive Maillot Jaune victories.
The Dane is currently training hard at altitude in Tignes, but it remains a race against time for Vingegaard to make it back to full fitness for the Grand Depart. "Ultimately, the point is that in the last weeks of preparation during the altitude training camp in Tignes, he must be completely available for everything we do with the Tour team," says Team Visma | Lease a Bike's outgoing sports director Merijn Zeeman, in quotes collected by Wielerrevue.
"He must be able to perform the toughest endurance training; the intensity, the intervals, the long endurance rides," Zeeman continues, noting how strenuous Vingegaard will be working in order to do absolutely everything he can to recover in time. "A rider who may not be at his own top level, but who is ready for it both physically and mentally. He has to be looking forward to it and have the feeling: I am completely back and can fight with the best for three weeks. If that is not the case, Jonas cannot ride."
In the end, it will all be down to Vingegaard himself according to Zeeman. "Jonas will decide for himself whether or not he will go to the Tour. He has to feel for himself whether he is completely ready for it in all respects and whether he is the old Jonas again. The choice is his. We will never force a rider to take a to compete," the sports director concludes. "I don't think that decision can be made until a week before the start of the Tour. We do not have another rider of his level and with his characteristics in the team. Jonas is so extremely talented that he can grow to a high level very quickly if he is taxable. That means he has a special place for us and we will indeed be waiting for a long time."
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- Pidcocks Ineos Grenadier? Nice proofing lolmij16-03-2025
- Agreed. Why have these two together? Give Jorgenson his own race. They have no one in Italy for GC that’s legit and provenmij16-03-2025
- Agreed. Why have these two together? Give Jorgenson his own race. They have no one in Italy for GC that’s legit and provenmij16-03-2025
- Yes, he’s impressive at the moment but lets see how long he keeps it up first so we know this isn’t his peak whilst those he’s expected to go up against are still building up to theirs.Mistermaumau15-03-2025
- Ah, but Jorgenson is probably recovering/saving himself for 2moro and Almeida seems like he got satisfied by his win so hard to know how hard everyone was trying. As said, he’s surprised many on the slopes a number of times now.Mistermaumau15-03-2025
- Dominant win??? 13 seconds over Piddie is not dominant.abstractengineer15-03-2025
- I mean the yellow jersey group of GC guys, like Jorgensen and Almeida.Ride197415-03-2025
- Maybe he needs to pull a Stuyven and attack at the bottom of the descent, but he's Pogacar, and they won't be looking at each other as he tries to get away. Sagan never won the race, maybe Pogacar will win it some day. Who knows.RidesHills15-03-2025
- Congratulations to Ayuso, this is a great win. The person who interests me more is Pidcock, who is racking up a fabulous set of podiums this season. The wins are good, but these second and third places are really interesting. Strade Bianchi and today's queen stage and a sprint against van der Poel? Pidcock is looking like the guy he was imagined to be. I did not expect this to happen when he changed to a smaller team, and it's fun to be proven wrong.RidesHills15-03-2025
- Also have to see how much marketing and publicity (ie success) both are responsible for, Can’t be the organisers sole responsibility.Mistermaumau15-03-2025