Visma's Richard Plugge sincere about Jonas Vingegaard's Tour de France participation: "We can't go to the Tour for him to defend the title if he's not 100%"
Cycling
Jonas Vingegaard's brutal crash at Itzulia Basque Country put his Tour de France defense at risk. However, the Dane, once released from hospital, confirmed his intention to recover to arrive at the Grande Boucle to defend his title won in the last two editions. However not everyone within Team Visma | Lease a Bike is on the same page regarding how he needs to be to race the Tour.
In an interview with Relevo, Richard Plugge, director of Visma - Lease a Bike, assures that the Dutch team will not take any risk if they see that their rider is not in top form. "Right now we contemplate two scenarios depending on his recovery: the first is with Jonas going to the Tour, and the second is not. In the end, we can't go to the Tour for him to defend the title if he's not 100%. It's something we're not going to go through," Plugge explained when asked if Visma had a 'plan B' to face the Grande Boucle without its superstar.
In case Jonas Vingegaard cannot compete against Tadej Pogacar, Primoz Roglic and we will see if Remco Evenepoel - who is also training to be in top form for the Tour after his injury in the Itzulia - Visma - Lease a Bike could opt to take a Wout van Aert who had planned to lead the Dutch team in the Giro d'Italia alongside Olav Kooij and Cian Uitjdebroeks.
However, his injury at Dwars door Vlaanderen, eight days before Vingegaard's injury in the Basque Country, left him out of his main goals for the first part of the season. That's why the Belgian has a chance to become Visma's priority at the Tour de France.
"Wout has the advantage that he's a little bit ahead in recovery, so physically we think he could be, but we have to wait," Plugge also confirms. "We haven't sat down with him yet to talk about his schedule after the fall. We have to see if he sees himself in the Tour or not, and analyze all possible scenarios to decide."
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It doesn't seem possible that he will be in top form for the Tour. I really wouldn't want to see him go there if he can't compete. I know he has sponsors to appease so we'll have to see what happens. Hopefully with a little more time he can go to the Vuelta and have success this year.
Why risking further injuries, going to TDF, when you not fully fit, and out of form? It makes no sense!
Stage hunting maybe. But, trying to get the GC is too far for him or Wout Van Aert at this point. Idk about you, but I would be surprised he will be in TDF at all. After all those injuries, why risking further injuries, just for TDF participation badge?
They're better going with WvA, I personally think he'd show really good
The better WvA can do is fight for Green. With MVdP and Philipsen confirmed, things would get pretty interesting.
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- Hopefully the women won’t be requesting equal prize money as for the men’s race. Even an average week long men’s race is harder than this travesty.
UltimateOpportunist15-04-2025 - So is Pogacar, whose rivals are van der Poel in the monuments and Vingegaard at the Tour, doing the same with his limited calendar of race days?RidesHills15-04-2025
- An interesting description, but I think it misses his motivations. He meets a goal and moves on. Van der Poel does race the Tour, though lately as lead out for Philipsen, after achieving the goal of wearing yellow one day. Same with the Giro, he met his goal and moved on. But yes, lately that sure looks like winning the monuments more than anything else.RidesHills15-04-2025
- Totally agree, if only for the reason that it sends the totally wrong message not to treat it that way, let’s get drunk then we can do stupid things without much punishment, and the drunker the safer. In fact, if alcohol is accepted as a reason for turning to bad behaviour, perhaps representatives of the industry should systematically also be punished financially when there are convictions.Mistermaumau15-04-2025
- I mean the year before cables were external aspect should help narrow down the options as that can only be 1 year if you look at every bike it's the year cables disappeared.HoopoeChai15-04-2025
- If other riders just give up when VDP and Pog turn up to race why bother at all. Sad to hear this attitude and there is the problem riders saying we have lost before the start . We have seen loads of time both riders can be beaten. Less neg and more positive.paultryan200215-04-2025
- I always thought the very best in a sport drove each other and their closest rivals to be better, Tadej and MVDP are driving each other to be better does that mean the rest have given up? To hear many of the pundits you'd think that was the case, they need to drag themselves up to the level to beat MVDP and Tadej because the two of them are not going to waitslappers6615-04-2025
- Must feel like a dream when he's back riding the smooth roads hahaPogboom15-04-2025
- Covid racing was great! You could actually hear the cyclist suffering.
Front24215-04-2025 - I'm pretty sure that it was 2011, when he as on the Saxo Bank team, and the bikes in question are the Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL3 and SL4.
santiagobenites15-04-2025