Jonas Vingegaard adamant about possibly skipping the Tour de France: "Doesn’t mean I don’t want to go"

“It was a pretty good year,” Vingegaard says candidly when asked to look back on his 2025. “Not my best, of course. I think my 2023 season was better, but finishing second in the Tour de France and winning the Vuelta is not a bad season.”

Because this year's goal was not achieved. “That was to win the Tour, so from that perspective I didn't achieve that goal, but I did win the Vuelta.” And so it's not surprising that he doesn't give himself a particularly high score. “So I would say a seven out of ten, something like that, maybe even an eight,” he says.

A more than satisfactory result, even without winning the Tour. “Cycling exists outside the Tour,” explains the Dane. “Of course, it's still the most important race, which is why I say the season wasn't perfect; I should have won it. But there are also many other races, such as the Vuelta,” says the winner of the Tour of Spain.

It was precisely that Vuelta victory that was so important to Vingegaard. “Not because I hadn't won it for two years, but more because of my serious crash last year (in April 2024, during the Tour of the Basque Country, ed.). It took me time to recover. It was essential to return to the level I was at before the crash.”

He has now regained the level he had before that serious crash. “My data shows that I can develop the same power as before,” says Vingegaard, who also puts things into perspective. “Cycling is evolving, so in a sense I lost a year and a half of progress, during which I mainly concentrated on getting back to the level I was at before the crash.”

With his overall victory in the Vuelta, Vingegaard showed that he can perform well in two consecutive Grand Tours. With his ambition to compete in the Giro d'Italia, the only three-week race he has not yet won, there may be opportunities for a Giro-Tour double. “We haven't finalized the plan with the team yet. I have my ideas, my wishes.”

“The Tour is so big that it will definitely be part of this plan, and we’ll see if the Giro can be part of it too,” the Dane continues. “It would be great, of course; it’s a dream to win all three Grand Tours, for all riders, I think. So it’s something significant to me. I would also really like to go to the Giro.”

Skipping the Tour would make planning a lot easier. Is there a chance we won't see Vingegaard in the Tour de France for a year? “Maybe, if one day I can no longer fight for the victory,” the Dane is adamant. “Not any sooner. I think the Tour is so important to me, and perhaps also to Tadej, that teams with a contender for the win want to participate.”

Because Vingegaard also knows: “Even if we don’t want to go, I think we have to go. Which doesn’t mean I don’t want to go,” says the Visma star, who still loves the Tour. “In France, you stand on the podium to sign autographs, and then there are thirty journalists who want to talk to you. At the Vuelta, when I came down, I thought, ”Oh, two guys! It’s okay!” That’s what makes the Tour so exhausting: the media, the protocol, but it’s also what makes it special.”