“With Tadej you need to expect everything” – Can Jonas Vingegaard upset the one day specialists at the European Championships?

Jonas Vingegaard lines up at today’s European Championships road race in Drôme–Ardèche stepping back into unfamiliar territory, a rare one-day appearance against two of his great rivals, Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel. For the two-time Tour de France champion, it’s his first major one-day outing since Il Lombardia in 2022, a gap he was reminded of with a grin before the start.

“Yeah, 2022,” he laughed to Cycling Pro Net. “That’s already some years ago. I think I got dropped, as I remember it, but I’m not sure.”

The Dane, who opted to skip the World Championships in Rwanda to focus on this race, admitted much has changed since that last appearance. “Of course, a lot has happened since 2022. I’m a lot better compared to how I was then,” he said. “But the competition is also a lot better. We just have to do our best and see what the result will be.”

The 203-kilometre course, with its three climbs of Saint-Romain-de-Lerps (7.1 km at 7%) and six punishing ascents of Val d’Enfer (1.5 km at nearly 10%), will test endurance and climbing tactics, terrain that suits Vingegaard, but one that leaves little margin for error. “I think the parcours is very, very hard,” he said. “It will be a very hard race again, and it will be with the best riders, for sure.”

Vingegaard is fresh off of winning the Vuelta a Espana for the first time in his career, and will co-lead Team Denmark alongside Mattias Skjelmose, a plan he’s fully behind. “Matias is a very good guy,” he said. “The plan is that we go for it as a team. If he wins, I’ll still be very happy.”

As for strategy, Vingegaard expects a chaotic race. “With Tadej, you need to expect everything,” he said with a wry smile, aware of Pogacar’s tendency to attack from long range.