"Racing 21 more days which means 21 more opportunities that you could have a crash" - Jonas Vingegaard warned against Giro d'Italia debut in 2025
CyclingThursday, 05 December 2024 at 19:30
The 2025 Tour de France is already looking like one of the most hotly anticipated in a long while, as Jonas Vingegaard looks to reclaim the Maillot Jaune lost to arch-rival Tadej Pogacar earlier this year. Against an all-conquering Pogacar though, can Vingegaard raise his level enough ready for next summer?
"I do believe that he can," American ex-pro and former 4th on GC at the Tour de France, Christian Vande Velde predicts on the latest episode of NBC Sports Cycling's Beyond the Podium podcast. "This is an open bike race and I believe there are so many other factors that go into this. That's why we have a race, anything can happen. You could have sickness, you could come to the line not as fresh as you should be and like has been referenced before, he (Pogacar ed.) crashed in Liege (before 2023 Tour de France ed.). So first and foremost, you have to get to the start line as fit as you possibly can."
The last four editions of the Tour de France have been dominated by the Vingegaard-Pogacar rivalry. In 2021 and 2024 the Slovenian led home the Dane, but in 2022 and 2023, Vingegaard proved he can push Pogacar further than anyone else in the pro peloton. "There is every chance in the world that Jonas can win a 3rd Tour de France. No doubt about that," Vande Velde says firmly. "Tadej Pogacar has the momentum though and in modern sports these days, when you have lost the momentum it's really hard to get that back, but they (Visma ed.) have to get that back in someway shape or form."
One of the ways Vingegaard could reportedly look to build up momentum is by embarking on a Giro d'Italia debut in 2025 and attempt to replicate Pogacar's Giro-Tour double from this year. According to Vande Velde though, this might not be the wisest of tactics from Vingegaard and Team Visma | Lease a Bike.
"Is he going to do the Giro d'Italia? That's a big risk!" the American ponders. "You're racing 21 more days which means 21 more opportunities that you could have a crash that is completely out of your control. Somebody else crashes, it's wet, you have a flat tyre, whatever!" Vande Velde warns.
Christian Vande Velde is confident that we could see Jonas Vingegaard win the Tour de France again. pic.twitter.com/M82alHekCs
— NBC Sports Cycling (@NBCSCycling) November 30, 2024
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the point here is gonna apply to almost every one of us i suspect: i grew up in huntington beach, california, doing daily training rides on high speed, heavy traffic roads like Pacific Coast Highway and Laguna Canyon Road. treacherous. and listen, i had ZERO future as a pro, i mean NONE. ZIPPO. so if amateurs like me (us?) do this kinda stuff for what many might call NO GOOD REASON, how much more inclined are the professionals to take risks, push limits? Vande Velde’s suggestion that any pro’s choices are primarily fear based is nutty.
out of curiosity, what are some of the crazy scary roads you all have trained on? midtown manhattan? inside the DC beltway? ANYWHERE in rome…?
Ha, where do I srart?
Rwanda, great roads, most inconsiderate egotistic truck drivers
Naples, even driving a car there is a lesson in advanced adaptation
Luxembourg, home of the highest concentration of cyclist haters anywhere
Barcelona, impossible city to reach by bike without ending up on a highway for lack of alternative signage.
London, most uncaring drivers
Belgium, most incompetent and distracted drivers
Vienna, most aggressive law enforcement to force you into danger
Dubai and desert were supremely simple due to vast space and a cyclist being a curiosity back in the 90s
I only rollerbladed the streets of Manhattan but that felt positively relaxed in comparison.
But isn’t it just as true that most people also often drive their cars for no good reason ?
I would have loved to try riding in Vietnam (but only got to try a small motorbike because of the Mrs) they have an extremely interesting approach to traffic.
At red lights you will see dozens, hundreds, maybe once I saw even close to a thousand two-wheelers amongst cars, vans, trucks, buses and it all flows smoothly, never saw an accident or injury in 3 weeks of crossing the country including the 2 biggest cities.
They don’t look so much at signs and laws but at respect and responsibility. In case of a crash, it will always be considered the bigger vehicle was more at fault, for not paying enough attention to more fragile road users. This means they take a lot of care looking all around. The only places where they drive unsafely is on long main arteries when buses and trucks compete for time gains.
Jonas needs to race more, full stop. He's meant to be the second-best GC rider out there and we barely see him outside the Tour. Riding the Giro would also increase his chances of adding to his Grand Tour tally given Pogacar will likely now target the Vuelta.
Why, because that’s what YOU would like?
anyone who thinks pro racers live in fear of crashing ought to go to youtube and look at the fabio jakobsen crash at the Tour of Poland, THEN read up on how hard he worked just to get BACK AT IT. these are some of the toughest, guttiest athletes on the face of the earth. i won’t say they’re fearless, but they master those fears to an astonishing degree.
It is impossible for a rider who fears to keep up in a race, you will get left behind or destroy yourself reeling people back unless you can stay out in front of everyone. Anyone who comes 2nd after 3 weeks obviously doesn’t have a fear problem during riding more than any other rider.
Having said that, all completely fearless riders end up dead, you need an innate fear to stop you going past your limit. It is experience which allows you to push it without going past, but fear that stops you.
agree with Maria2024. not racing because you’re afraid of crashing just means not racing. i don’t think ANY rider, male or female, who’s made it as far as the WORLD TOUR thinks that way, much less the grand champions. i get that a load of fans just wanna see jonas at the tour this year COMPLETELY HEALTHY and OPTIMALLY FIT. there are certainly arguments to make as to why he shouldn’t try the giro/tour double this year, but the “21 extra days to crash” is certainly NOT ONE OF THEM.
then work as clerk... oh! no! maybe go to work can be risk! stay at home! .
What senseless argument.
Come to Italy, Jonas, we will cheer for you and we will take care of you (like we did with Tadej). 90 percent chance you will win.
Jonas should absolutely head to the Giro. Winning it, if he manages, would be a huge feather in his cap already. And it may not slow him down much in the TdF.
Christian Vande Velde - the pool of optimism!
There's no guarantees in life ! Anything can happen in or out of a bike race to change your fortunes if you're basing your whole year on the TdF. Sure you can reduce the odds in your favor but you only live once...go for it!
If racing the Giro is a big risk , all preparatory races will fall under the same category since no race is risk free. As seen from Remco even Training is not risk free. Vandevelde sometimes talks crap
Look, therés right and wrong on both sides of the argument and in the end each rider makes their own assessment according to priorities, goals and feelings, none of our arguments is going to change any of that.
But, no-one can deny that racing has become significantly more dangerous the last couple of years (training always was and hasn’t really gotten worse worldwide despite what the Belgian said (which may be specificly right regarding his area) so I get that some are becoming picky about lesser races when there’s so much pressure to perform perfectly at specific ones.
It’s something to take into consideration, the Giro is one of the more dangerous events. But, there’s also the fact that one day TP will have another crash.
It used to be so much easier to decide what to race and what not :-)
dangerous? I don't think so, the main features of the Giro d'Italia are having a lot of long, stepped climbs (perfect for Jonas and not dangerous at all, the speed is so low) and the too much cold. IMHO is the less dangerous of the 3 GT
You realize there usually comes a descent after a climb? You realize racing downhill in the cold and wet is more dangerous than in ideal conditions? Just look at this year’s edition - pathetic Vegni almost forced riders to ride over the Stelvio (and later attempted at least Umbrailpass) on icy roads and temperatures below 0 degrees centigrade. Look at the fiasco the year before with Grand Saint Bernard and Croix de Coeur. Sorry, your post is just full of BS.
Agreed, Maria. This unpleasant Opprtunist had zero likes when he posted his first lies about women. Looks like he joined just for that purpose.
There 39 serious mountain descents in the 2024 Giro, 2025 will likely be the same. However, this is part of racing. Either get to it or get out, that's what I believe.
Sorry Maria, I think you are biased, and wrong, but considering your bias it is understandable ;-)
It is by far the GT with the most unreliable and by average bad weather, especially in mountains where you cannot deny there are always descents as well. Furthermore, the nature of the beautifully scenic routes chosen imply many of the descents have narrow sections, complicated urbanism (stone walls in place of pavement), what’s more the surface is often in a terrible condition, and all this is without the stubbornness from organisers we’ve seen a lot of recently.
Now dangerousity doesn’t always translate into numbers and awareness can bias numbers because if you kniw something to be more dangerous you also pay more attention to reduce risks.
Unfortunately no-one has ever done any serious analysis or research for this and only since this year has anyone started compiling a list of rider accidents (including domestic or others that injure them) we can check up on.
There were 4 crashes in the men’d Giro and in the Tdf that left a rider injured, and 2 each in the women’s. So basically equal considering they have the same number of participants with the TdF being about 5% longer and on average (5years) has 2-3% more elevation (can’t say how much descent each had).
Past years might be harder to compare.
What’s very obvious is that despite riders having max 90 riding days and training double that or more, the vast majority of accidents are during racing and not training.
I'll think about my be biased (yes, I love my Giro d'Italia). I don't agree about the stubbornness of the organizers, I think there are a lot of misunderstanding and mass media exaggeration: at the end of the tale, a lot of the stages are modified every year. And yes, they're professional cyclists, pay more attention to reduce risks is part of their jobs.
Sorry, more and more riders are questioning and complaining of courses in advance to organisers and they are less and less regarded.
2024 from memory without even searching
Paris Roubaix
Giro
Itzulla
WC Zurich
O'connor and Plapp, both didn't understand AT ALL the organizers plan and according with each team, but playing victims without knowing details, in the social media pay.
If that is a reply, I wasn’t even considering those two and my statement about riddes was a general view, not aimed at the giro in particular
Yes, your bias is clouding your judgement. Why are you protecting the incompetent organisers? They gaslight the riders by saying it is the riders' fault for going too fast and crashing, and that they should slow down in a RACE where the whole point is literally the fastest wins!
Pogboom, strangely, this message didn’t show in the list of latest posts.
To be fair and if I remember rightly it wasn’t someone from the Giro who said that. I have the feeling it was big old Preudhomme himself, anyone remember better?
Sorry, seems sometimes the site just has problems reloading properly (probably the tsunami of ads gets in the way of task completion), all visible now.