"Winning the Tour gives me a lot of confidence, and I believe I can do it again" - Jonas Vingegaard

After two months away from public eye, Jonas Vingegaard is back on the spotlight. After taking several wins throughout the spring the Dane decided to end his racing schedule early, and has spent the last two months preparing for the Tour de France, which is now the sole focus of his preparation.

“I think winning the Tour gives me a lot of confidence, and I believe I can do it again. A lot of things can happen, and I’ll have to be at my best level, but I think I can do it," Vingegaard told Cyclingnews. “The feeling I have now is one of less pressure, now I’ve won it once. Even if I never win it again and I retire in 10 years, I can still say I’ve won it and be proud of my career.”

Winner of Itzulia Basque Country in convincing fashion in early April, he has decided not to race the Ardennes. Instead he took time off, and then began preparing the Tour. In May he and the Jumbo-Visma block have been training at altitude, seemingly without any issue - unlike Tadej Pogacar who is recovering from injury, will only race the national championships and has only been training on the road for some days.

The Dane's form after so much time away from the peloton isn't yet fully known. “It’s always hard to tell. I think my whole spring has been better, and there haven’t been any issues or sickness or anything. But it’s hard to compare, and we’ve changed equipment as well, so it’s harder to say if I’m stronger.”

The Criterium du Dauphiné will be a key race ahead of the Tour. It is not by chance that most contenders for the overall classification will be present here including Enric Mas, Jai Hindley, Mikel Landa, Richard Carapaz and many more. It's a startlist stacked with terrific climbers, but it is a race where Vingegaard's time-trialing abilities will be much more effective than at the Tour.

“Normally, this race doesn’t decide the Tour. You might not be good here, and still, everything can change before July. I haven’t really thought too much about it, it doesn’t make sense that I go full gas in flat stages, so I’ll take it on the day-by-day," he says. "If there’s a chance, I’ll go for it. The time trial is an advantage, but we’ve seen every once in a while you can do a bad TT. Also, in the other stages, we’ll have to see how everything turns out. I’m looking forward to racing again, anyway, it’s been a while now.”

Last year however was an indicator that form in June is already key - alongside the hard start to the Tour. Vingegaard, Pogacar and Thomas who completed the podium in July each respectively won the Criterium du Dauphiné, Tour of Slovenia and Tour de Suisse, meaning they all entered the Tour firing all cylinders.

On Pogacar, Vingegaard would like to have a fair and balanced battle, the Dane comments: “It’d be nicer if he’s at 100%. I hope he’s at his best level. Paris-Nice was four months ago and in between a lot of things can happen. He was also stronger than me in Tirreno in 2022. So I’m taking it easy for now. It [Paris-Nice] won’t decide the Tour.”