"We discussed riding the Giro... Liege was never an option" - Jonas Vingegaard explains choice to focus on Tour de France in 2025

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Jonas Vingegaard's main focus in 2025 will be the Tour de France and the aim of regaining the Maillot Jaune. There was intense speculation that the Dane could attempt to replicate Tadej Pogacar and go for a Giro d'Italia / Tour de France double, but ultimately Vingegaard has opted for a Tour de France / Vuelta a Espana double instead.

"We will do the usual, with a high altitude training camp in May, the Dauphiné, an additional high altitude training camp, and then the Tour," the Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader explains, in quotes collected by IDL from a Visma media day. "We did think about the Giro and talked about it. All options were on the table, and we discussed riding the Giro. However, we realized fairly quickly that the Tour is always the main goal so that the Giro would be partly in preparation for it. But there are many factors involved."

Front and centre of those factors, was the potential of ruining his Tour de France ambitions in Italy. "What's the Giro like? What will the weather be like? How fast do you have to ride there?" Vingegaard explains of his thought process. "You can't control any of that, which you can at the training camp. We thought that would be better."

The Giro d'Italia wasn't the only potential addition that was proposed either, with the Ardennes Classics also touted as possible races for Vingegaard pre-Tour de France in 2025. As it turns out though, this speculation was wide of the mark according to the man himself. "Liege-Bastogne-Liege was not an option," he shuts down firmly. "I will ride three races and then take a break before everything is focused on the Tour."

"The World Championships are on the schedule now, but anything can happen. That was also the case last year, but I was already mentally exhausted after the Tour," Vingegaard concludes, keeping his options open. "I managed to hold on until after the Tour of Poland, but that was enough. In any other way, it would have been too much."