PRESS CONFERENCE | Jonas Vingegaard 100% ready for 2025 Tour de France: "I'm on the highest level I've ever been"

Jonas Vingegaard is a headliner for this Tour de France and realistically the only rider who can battle with Tadej Pogacar in the mountains. The Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider responded to the media's questions during the team's press conference and CyclingUpToDate has learned about his answers.

The Dane has talked about his historic rivalry with Tadej Pogacar, aspects of his performance that have improved over the past year, his opinions on the 2025 Tour's route, the recovery from his 2024 and 2025 spring crashes and how he has gained weight since last year in an attempt to better the World Champion in his attacks.

Answer: I'm not going to tell you or anyone here, I tell my team. I obviously have my plan like we always do but we can't tell the media.

A. That's a very nice complement from Tadej. Tadej is a nice guy and I think we aqw on the Dauphiné that he was better on the long climbs so I don't know if I would agree at least how it was in Dauphiné. Hopefully I can be even better here than I was at the Dauphiné. We have a strong team and I believe our plan.

A: For sure the first 10 days are very important, it will be a very hectic start, a very hectic first 10 days. I never tried a bunch sprint on stage 1 so that's a first. All the time I saw as a kid, from what I could tell from the television, it was very hecitc. First 10 days we have to stay out of trouble, not lose anytime, then normally you can make the big difference in the mountains.

A: I think I can say for sure I'm stronger than ever. Of course last year I was also on a very high level at the Tour de France but it was in a different way. I had a lot less muscles but I was also lighter. Of course I'm more heavy now than last year but it's muscle and we know that it gives a lot more power overall. I can say that I'm on the highest level I've ever been, and let's see if it's enough.

A: This year there is a big difference compared to last year, last year I came back from the terrible crash and to be honest it took me way longer than I thought to actually come back. It's only be a few months that I would say that my body feels the same as it did before the crash. It took me almost a year to get back to the same as it was prior to my crash. And then obviously being in bed for three weeks we lose a lot of muscle. We tried to gain that back and we succeeded.

A: To be honest I think it will be ridden more as a normal stage. i cannot see, how to say, if the GC is close that we do all the parades and stuff like normal. If it's close in GC there's still a chance to turn it upside down so it'll create a lot more stress. I said it also earlier but the whole thing about Montmartre is that in the Olympics they were there with 50 riders, now it will be over 150 riders fighting for position so it'll create a lot of stress as well which will make it much more dangerous in my opinion.

A: It's true as you say that having a rival that is as good as Tadej brings out the best in yourself and you know you have to train hard everyday to compete with him. For me it makes me better, a better cyclist and I have a lot of admiration for Tadej, he's a very nice guy and bike rider, I only have good words about him.

A: I'm also very happy when Wout is going to win a stage or more stages and if he could ride a few days in yellow, but we also talk about the main goal being to win the yellow jersey in Paris and we don't want to compromise that. But if there's a chance to help without compromising then I would do it obviously.

A: If we were afraid of Tadej we wouldn't be here, my good sports director (Grischa Niermann, ed.) said earlier that we would've better stayed at home [if we were]. If we would be afraid then it's better not to show up, obviously we're not afraid but we have a lot of respect for what he can do.

A: It depends from time-trial to time-trial, I think also in the past I've showed that normally when you do a not-so-good time-trial in the Dauphiné you can still do a good time-trial in the Tour de France so a lot of things can happen in the meantime. Obviously it's better to do a good one there, but we will see on stage 5 where we will be.

A: Honestly there are quite some challenging stages in the mountains this year, I'm not going to point out one that's more than the others. I think the two stages in the Pyrenees and two stages in the Alps are pretty equal all of them.

A: It took me one week on the couch, I had to sleep a lot for one week. I was awake for about an hour and then I had to sleep for an hour, the first five days were like this. From there on it started getting better then from day 8 or 9 I could start training at a very low intensity.

A: I can't remember, sorry! (laughs, ed.)

A: Of course doing an acceleration is easier, or you have a better acceleration when you have more muscles, obviously that was also our plan last year because we felt like I was weak in the accelerations so we tried to increase that as well.

A: To be honest there's a lot of guys, it's the Tour de France and everyone brings their best teams. Primoz is a very good contender as well, he crashed out of the Giro, he will be ready for it I think and also INEOS have a very strong team, Movistar as well. There's a lot of guys, and of course there's a lot of guys I didn't even mention here.

A: Like every year felt almost like a victory. First year I came in and at my first Tour de France so a second place feels like a victory. Then two victories felt like a victory, and last year came back from what I experienced almost felt like a victory itself. I almost feel like I have four victories in the Tour.

A: Yeah let's say (laughs, ed.)

A: It's true, Simon is a really good guy, he was super strong. He was also there in the altitude camp there in Tignes (in May, ed.) and we were watching his Giro victory. I'm super happy to have Simon on the team, not only him but also Sepp and Matteo for the mountains. For me it's a dream team in the climbs to be honest. Not only in the mountains but for the flats we have a full classics squad. I think we have the strongest team as well.

A: Of course the first time you're in it it's a bit overwhelming, there's quite some people in here, but you get used to it. You get more relaxed in these situations, and yeah something you learn with time, you don't think much about. Specially at the Tour de France it's more than the double of every other race so you kind of just know it it by now.

A: I think in recent years he hasn't had many weaknesses I would say. To be honest, if he has any I wouldn't sit here and tell you, then they know. Those are cards we'll keep for ourselves.