“There is much more to life than cycling” – Jonas Vingegaard backs Mads Pedersen retirement plan after admitting he considered quitting
CyclingThursday, 16 July 2026 at 16:30
Jonas Vingegaard has backed Mads Pedersen’s plan to retire after the 2029 World Championships in Copenhagen, months after the two-time Tour de France winner warned that he could no longer continue under the same demands himself.
Pedersen would be 33 when the World Championships return to Denmark, but has stressed that the announcement does not diminish his ambitions to win the Tour’s green jersey and finally add a Monument to his palmares.
“It is a very important discussion in cycling because it is a hard sport,” Vingegaard told TV 2 Sport. “It is difficult to live the way we do, and I can understand Mads."
“There is much more to life than cycling, so I can understand their decisions, and I have great respect for the fact that they are stopping at a relatively young age," he continued. “It takes something to make that decision, but on the other hand it is also important that you make the choice yourself rather than your team making it for you.”
Pedersen chooses Copenhagen as intended farewell
Pedersen revealed his plans during an appearance on TV 2 programme AftenTour, selecting a home World Championships as the point at which he would like to bring his professional career to an end. “The plan is that the World Championships in Copenhagen are where I would like to stop cycling,” he said.
The Lidl-Trek leader has already won the 2019 world title, Gent-Wevelgem and stages in all three Grand Tours, but a victory in one of cycling’s five Monuments remains absent from his palmares.
Pedersen is also pursuing the green jersey at the 2026 Tour de France and rejected any suggestion that setting an intended retirement date meant he had already begun winding down.
“People should not think of it as though I have made retirement plans and decided what I am going to do afterwards,” he said. “I am still in this bubble where it is about the green jersey and that bloody Monument I am still missing.”
His contract with Lidl-Trek currently runs through 2030, meaning Pedersen’s preferred ending would come before the completion of his existing deal. The Dane has previously said he does not want to remain in the peloton once he is no longer capable of competing for victories.
Pedersen leads the green jersey classification at the 2026 Tour de France
Vingegaard considered walking away
Vingegaard entered the discussion having already spoken publicly about the effect professional cycling had placed on his own happiness and family life earlier this week.
During the first rest day of the 2026 Tour de France, the Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader revealed that he had considered leaving the sport in 2025 after becoming unhappy with the dieting, extended altitude camps and long periods spent away from home. “I said last year that if this was how it was going to be, I couldn’t be in it anymore,” Vingegaard said.
Visma subsequently adjusted his programme and gave him greater flexibility around his family. Vingegaard has since described himself as happier and more motivated, but has also indicated that he does not expect to continue racing beyond the age of 35.
Rather than fixing a final race, he intends to assess his future season by season. Pedersen has taken the opposite approach by choosing the 2029 World Championships more than three years in advance.
Both remain among the leading riders in the peloton, but neither has been willing to treat the sacrifices required by professional cycling as something that must continue indefinitely. Pedersen’s Copenhagen plan gives him control over his intended departure, the same control Vingegaard demanded when his own relationship with the sport reached breaking point.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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