🎥 Visma | Lease a Bike and Vingegaard criticize bizarre ending, but organize beautiful celebration for all winners
CyclingMonday, 15 September 2025 at 12:37
A few hours after officially sealing his overall victory in the Vuelta a España, Jonas Vingegaard responded to his third Grand Tour win... this time in a somewhat strange setting in Madrid. The Danish rider from Visma | Lease a Bike was unable to celebrate with Spanish fans, as massive protests in the capital prevented the usual festivities. And Vingegaard was clearly disappointed by it.
Of course, the two-time Tour de France winner already knew on Saturday that he had won the Vuelta. But he had been looking forward to the traditional celebration in Madrid, as he had enjoyed his Tour de France celebrations in Paris in 2022 and 2023. His disappointment was written all over his face when the peloton was stopped upon entering the city. The Vuelta was suddenly over.
The riders were brought back to their hotels, where teams had already made arrangements. Naturally, there was joy and reflection after three weeks of racing. “I’m super proud of this overall win, my first Vuelta and the third Grand Tour of my career,” Vingegaard said through Visma | Lease a Bike’s official channels.
Continue reading below the photo.
Jonas Vingegaard looked crestfallen in Madrid
Vingegaard reflects on a tough Vuelta a España
“It’s been three tough weeks. I felt very strong in the first week and managed to win twice,” he recalled. “Afterwards I had a more difficult phase, but luckily I came back during the final weekend. My stage win on Bola del Mundo gave me great satisfaction. It was a beautiful way to crown this Vuelta.”
That third stage win on Saturday was indeed the perfect ending, said team director Jesper Mørkøv. “Our guys have done an incredible job supporting Jonas these past weeks. He defended the leader’s jersey with conviction and proved once again that he was the strongest rider of this Vuelta. Three stage wins and now the overall: Jonas is a more than deserved winner.”
Continue reading below the photo.
Vingegaard disappointed over cancellation of festivities in Madrid
The cancellation of the final stage hit the team emotionally. “It’s a pity that such a moment of eternity was taken from us. I was looking forward to celebrating this overall win with my team and the fans,” Vingegaard said. “Everyone has the right to protest, but it’s a shame that it has to happen here and prevents us from finishing the race.”
“Above all, I am very happy with and proud of this overall win. It’s sad that we and the fans were denied a beautiful finale in the heart of Madrid,” added CEO Richard Plugge. “We will celebrate the red jersey with our team in our own way and honour this fantastic achievement,” the Dutchman announced. Visma | Lease a Bike went on to organize a beautiful tribute for the winners, captured on camera by TV2.
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Latest Comments
- Roger Vlaeminck says Mads is not a good rider? Where is the headline saying you don't even have to be a good rider to win the World Road Championship says Roger Vlaeminck, who never won it!!? Perhaps his aging mind needs to think about what the heck he's saying.packfiller7103-09-2025
- Wow, there is so much criticism of the UAE XRG riders. Why so much criticism is being leveled solely at the riders is baffling. The UAE XRG management deserves a good amount of the criticism aimed at the team, as a whole. They have not managed the talent they have at all. They failed miserably to properly handle young Isaac del Toro on that penultimate day of the Giro. And they have not handled Juan Ayuso well either. If they didn't have Tadej Pogacar in their roster, we might not be talking about them as winners, at all. So many think that Ayuso has shown that he is not a "team" player at all. Does anybody think that he might be thinking about his own future at this point? That he might want to feel like the team has his back, when they load the pressure onto him? And Joao is not a team leader. That burden might be laid on him by the management, but they need to properly support that assignment, not make it a contentious situation, within the team. And then how management has conducted themselves throughout this parting of ways between themselves and Ayuso has been totally indiscreet. And yet people want to pile onto Ayuso when he tells the truth about the manner that this is all soap opera is developing. He wants out. He shouldn't be getting so much negative criticism for that. It's a situation that has soured. Yes he has a contract, but he is not the first, nor will he be the last that wants to get out of a relationship that just isn't working anymore. And DeCauwer seems to have very vague reasons for criticizing Almeida. He does realize that Jonas is the second best Grand Tour rider of this current generation, so it should be no shame that Joao is behind him in the standings. Riders are giving their all in an extremely difficult sport that stretches them, often beyond their limits. Now many are wanting to send them to Behavioral School as well? The criticism ought to mellow out, or it ought to simply be ignored, as nothing more than blah, blah, blah, not worth the headlines it gets
reemmo002-09-2025 - In 5yrs, Pogi will be a top Twitch streamer living on baked goods while Urska is still racing.Veganpotter11-08-2025
- All they learned is that at the end of a 3 week race, Wout can beat him on a slightly bumpy stage. Obviously, this is very much thanks to Wout not racing for GC every day. This doesn't teach them a thing for Jonas beating Pogi. Not saying Jonas will never beat him again. But this absolutely won't have anything to do with it if he does beat him.Veganpotter28-07-2025
- Well, he eventually Pogacar pays the price for his insane spring campaign which was really crazyRosenkohl196125-07-2025
- Maybe I was a bit disrespectful to Heiden. What he did was unique and exceptional but he wasn't the only one who combined those distances, nowadays it is just not possible and nobody competes in both distances. The same is true for cycling with for example the combination of Roubaix and de Tour de France. In Merckx era there were more riders who managed a top10 in both races than currently.Joostmehrtens19-06-2025
- Two old men shouting at pigeons in the park…JonS16-06-2025
- Out of touch old men hankering after their youth through rose tinted spectacles, their arrogance almost outshines their irrelevance. Turn the volume down, this modern stuff just isn't music like we used to sing...johnny20whales16-06-2025
- In talking speed skating, the days when Heiden did that, nobody else did that. And Eddy couldn't do the equivalent of the bike. His 200 on the velodrome was good, but not world competitive for gold. Heiden was in his own world on the ice, moreso than Eddy if we pretend Eric didn't have a very short career on the ice.Veganpotter16-06-2025
- They wouldn't have dropped HIM so easily.... the GOAT. They would have dropped the rest from that era easily thoughVeganpotter16-06-2025
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