"We discussed riding the Giro... Liege was never an option" - Jonas Vingegaard explains choice to focus on Tour de France in 2025
Cycling
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."
Je ne me fais pas de soucis pour Vingegaard. Toujours un bon mutant qui monoxyde bien. pic.twitter.com/PGsjud4KEF
— 🅰ntoine VAYER 📸🖋️ (@festinaboy) January 22, 2025
do you want Vingo riding something different than a tour? In Dante Alighieri's way, it can be said "abandon all hope" ...
If avoiding Pogi was the focus then obvi he would have done the Giro
You don’t enter F1 with a diesel but you can win Le Mans, stop pitting Vin against Pog on home ground, you never ask Pog to prove himself in MTB or cyclocross, heck, no-one even heckles him for avoiding P-R.
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- Having to shoulder too much pressure from the Belgain public too much that he made a tactical mistake. That's what public pressure does to you. Poor Wout! Hopefully, lady luck befalls him soon.
KerisVroom03-04-2025 - If he's very lucky maybe he can podium a Tour one season, I certainly don't believe he can win it, evervappaxbipmv03-04-2025
- Yeah, as if fans would now have acquired a right to an MVPD every generation ;-)Jumpyjohn03-04-2025
- Yeah not this year anyway but worth keeping an eye on him (and some others) in future.Jumpyjohn03-04-2025
- poor kid, saddled with all that “next mvdp” crap. eeesh…OCexile03-04-2025
- I don't think so, maybe in a different GT, not in the Tour. Last year, to be 3rd, he would have to be better than Remco. And he wasn't, on any terrainvappaxbipmv03-04-2025
- Or sprinting, or against wind. I think by now they’ve optimised the tire tech and pressures to largely smooth out rider weight effects. BUT, I’m going to go through past podiums to see what weight distribution trends are to be spotted coz I’m curious now.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- I also wasn’t too impressed by the final lead out, they’ve got to practice that, Wout had far too long to ride alone but then again it seemed as if the lead-outs had themselves run out of steam too early which is what makes me believe none of them could have won, Powfull looked totally fresh and in the end it was just a case of him being stronger than the others, not much you can do against that, just like you can’t outdo MVDP in the end when he’s in shape.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- Exactly, a rider (or sprinter in athletics) can’t even tell themselves when it will happen until it does. Obviously if you have an idea that could happen, you should maybe envisage testing your theory with perhaps an small sharp attack well before race-end.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- Yes but 20 minutes as a domestique isn’t 20 minutes as a leader, and you know as well as anybody that Pog winning is in no way a guarantee. Granted, neither Pog nor Remco nor Jinas nor Primoz or some more winning starts to seem far-fetched but a podium would certainly be targetable if he doesn’t have to worry about Jonas.Mistermaumau03-04-2025