Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert have not raced together in 2026—but will meet in Denmark

Wout van Aert won the first stage of the Tour of Denmark on Wednesday, meaning the Belgian will start Day 2 in the leader’s jersey. Thursday’s second stage begins in Glyngøre, the birthplace of Jonas Vingegaard. The Danish rider will also make his first public appearance there since crashing out of the Tour de France.

The second stage of his home race naturally starts in Glyngøre because of the town’s connection to Vingegaard. The Visma | Lease a Bike leader will be honoured there on Thursday for winning the Giro d’Italia earlier this year. Vingegaard crashed on Stage 15 of the Tour de France and suffered a broken collarbone.

“Jonas Vingegaard is not only one of the best cyclists in the world; he is also Glyngøre’s great sporting hero. Having him appear at the start in his hometown and add extra prestige to our race is one of the moments we always look forward to at the Tour of Denmark. It is also our first opportunity to congratulate him on winning the Giro d’Italia,” event manager Klaus Falk Paarup said.

After his crash, Vingegaard spoke to Danish broadcaster TV 2. “I’m doing surprisingly well. We approached a roundabout a little too fast, and suddenly my front wheel skidded. Maybe the motorcyclist made a mistake, but we can’t blindly rely on the motorcycles. We have to make our own decisions. People make mistakes; there’s nothing we can do about that now.”

The fact that Vingegaard will welcome Van Aert—the Belgian who was forced to miss the Tour de France because of injury—as race leader in Glyngøre is naturally an added bonus for Visma | Lease a Bike. Van Aert and Vingegaard have not competed together on a single race day in 2026.

While in Denmark, Van Aert also discussed the doping test Vingegaard received at 2 a.m., hours before he crashed during the stage to Plateau de Solaison. “Jonas was the only one tested at 2 a.m. No other rival was woken up at the same time,” the Belgian explained to Het Nieuwsblad.

“That affects the race no matter what, and for me that is absolutely unacceptable. There simply needs to be a clear and consistent policy. One rider was singled out and—however you look at it—had his night’s sleep interrupted. That had an impact on the race,” Van Aert said.

“It’s clear that it didn’t do any good—you can certainly say that,” Vingegaard himself said after the crash. “Whether it was the reason, I don’t dare speculate. It’s quite possible that it did have an impact. But I can’t say that with certainty, and I don’t want to blame the crash on it.”