"Vingegaard... where are you man?" - Pundit questions Visma leader's absence from action month and a half after Paris-Nice injury

Jonas Vingegaard suffered a concussion in a crash at Paris-Nice, whilst he led the race, and ended up in a situation similar to 2024 where the fall ended his spring campaign. Whilst his injuries are nowhere near as big (although he did have to stay off the bike for 10 days), he has not raced since mid-March and will spend three weeks out of competition until he reaches the Criterium du Dauphiné.

Michel Wuyts said, in his opinion, on the Wuyts and Vlaeminck podcast, that in the meantime Tadej Pogacar is moving through the spring and bringing in comfortable victories. “Not only in this edition, but in – let's say – the past five editions, the opposition was mediocre," he said of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. "You can't say that Ciccone and Healy are great champions. That would be doing violence to the truth".

The two have had spring campaigns that couldn't be any different, and just like in 2024, Pogacar brings in the victories whilst Vingegaard remains largely out of competition. Towards the Tour de France, it is difficult to argue at this point in time that Vingegaard is on the same level as the Slovenian in terms of favouritivism.

However Wuyts is relatively criticial of Vingegaard's long absence from action. It had been rumoured he could race the Ardennes (or at least Liège), maybe the Tour of the Alps, but likely the Tour de Romandie. Ultimately he did neither of them. "They're not coming, right? I can understand Roglic, saying 'I'm going to the Giro, I don't want to take any risks and at 35 this is the only way to win the Giro.' That's putting everything in perspective. But Vingegaard... where are you man? Where are you? Show yourself in a one-day race."

He says it's not the brightest days for the Visma team, who are also likely seeing Tiesj Benoot leaving and signing with Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale. "It's painful that Tiesj Benoot - despite all his merits for that team, because they are enormous - has to do it for Visma | Lease a Bike. He has to keep up appearances for that team in that Ardennes section. There's no one around him."