"You can tell he’s nervous" - Has Jonas Vingegaard's bike handling problems come in the way of Tour de France goals?
CyclingMonday, 20 July 2026 at 13:32
Jonas Vingegaard is a tremendous climber and Grand Tour specialist, but not as complete of a rider as Tadej Pogacar. Mostly, this is something seen now on the descents and technical areas, in which the Dane has shown a lot of tension and difficulties, something which may have led to his demise at the Tour de France.
Vingegaard struggled to follow on descents and tense moments
During stage 15 of the race, with a few technical descents at hand, it had showcased the Dane's struggles with bike handling on the downhills, something that has become more prominent in the past few years.
“You could see very clearly there that Vingegaard kept losing track of his teammates ahead of him, that he was falling behind a bit,” Thijs Zonneveld said on the In de Waaier podcast. “We saw it yesterday, too: we were standing on the side of the descent, and everyone was bunched up together except for Vingegaard. As a rider, you recognize the pattern: you can tell he’s nervous.”
That is natural at the end of the day, for a rider who has suffered bad crashed and serious injuries in downhills in the past. This season, he has been vocal and also active about the danger of being in the peloton during the flat stages and the sprint finales, even when his intentions were to avoid crashes.
Stage 10 into Le Lioran perhaps showed this difficulty clearly. “Vingegaard was the first to start the descent toward the finish there, in the group with Seixas, Ayuso, Lipowitz, and Skjelmose. He was the last to come out of it. Other riders realized ‘oh no, you’re going too slow, I want to pass you'.”
Jonas Vingegaard at the 2026 Tour de France
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A worst descender than in the past
In the past this did not use to be a problem, whilst currently, the Dane could've been attacked there, away from the climbing efforts. “If you look at it over the course of several years, Vingegaard was the better descender at first. We had a Tour where Pogacar tried to drop Vingegaard on the descent to Hautacam. That didn’t work out; in fact, Pogacar crashed, Vingegaard waited, the handshake… You know the story.”
"Even after the crash in the Basque Country—where you’d think he might have been a bit nervous on the descent—Pogacar attacked in Italy, and Vingegaard was right on his wheel during the descent. You really thought, ‘How do you manage to shut out your fear?’”
After so many difficult moments and in an ever-more-dangerous peloton, Vingegaard faces an obstacle in the way of big wins. This Sunday's crash might have also been the result of difficulties with bike handling over a very technical phase of the course.
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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- We'll never know, but what evidence?... an anonymous phone tip from some rabid Seixas fan? Certainly not a team car full of dope and paraphernalia or a bunch of used syringes in a trash bag at the race finish.mrvco21-07-2026
- True. If you going to test for doping though, between two tough mountain stages is the right time to test beacuse that is when they might need it most.
Andrew21-07-2026 - cycling has been dirty forever, really not sure why no one is giving the testers the benefit of the doubtwhkman21-07-2026
- None of us really know what goes on behind closed doors but it is very suspicious to wake these riders up the day before a big mountain stage while they are still recovering from the mountain stage the day before. I have to go to bed, it's almost 2am lolawp21-07-2026
- And you’re free to believe that as I am free not to believe it regardless of who my neighbours or work colleagues support.Andrew21-07-2026
- And you know that how? Did Pog call you, message you?Andrew21-07-2026
- being reported that as many as 8 teams were tested at late hours and from Benjamin Cohen, head of ITA in April: “I don’t think you would want to do mass testing at the Tour de France, for example, and wake up all the athletes at 3am — that doesn’t make sense. I think you would need to have very concrete suspicions (about an athlete) and use that in a very cautious manner. “I wouldn’t advocate for mass night testing, but certainly for some flexibility if you believe that there is an issue.” so really doesn't seem like he's crazy about testing and thinks they should need evidence for late night testing. and here we are, they went to a judge and got the ok so I think they have credible evidencewhkman21-07-2026
- "a bit much" is an understatement.whkman21-07-2026
- UAE will suffocate Remco in the big mountains !frieders321-07-2026
- the ita obviously only had evidence on the riders that were tested and took it to the judge and the judge ok'd the 2am and 5am tests. maybe seixas is doped up who knows? but they didn't have any evidence on him to bring to a judge. anyone who thinks the French are biased has forgotten Festina.whkman21-07-2026
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