Vingegaard, after Pogacar test, now reaps the rewards of surprising strength training, first in the Tour, now in the Vuelta

Vingegaard has always had a very lean upper body with two sturdy thighs underneath. But anyone who saw him step into the press conference bus on Sunday would’ve noticed: there’s a bit more granite in his face and calves now. That was already visible during the Tour de France. Before that race, Vingegaard stated he was stronger than ever, thanks to a winter of dedicated strength training to regain the muscle mass he lost in that horrific crash at the Tour of the Basque Country in April 2024.

Proudly, Vingegaard shared that it was the first time he had truly committed to the gym. It had added a bit of weight, yes, but also made him stronger than ever. And we saw that clearly in what might have been the most explosive opening week of the Tour in history. Pogacar launched attack after attack on every hill to test his rival, but Vingegaard never cracked. He never managed to drop the Slovenian from UAE Team Emirates-XRG either, but the fact that he didn’t lose a single second on Pogacar’s turf was a victory in itself.

Jonas Vingegaard never made any concrete statements about the balance between muscle mass and body weight, until Sunday, when he agreed to answer two more questions from IDLProCycling.com, specifically about his newfound explosiveness. “After my crash last year, I lost a lot of muscle strength, so our goal this past winter was to rebuild that muscle,” he repeated, echoing what both he and his coach Tim Heemskerk had said earlier in the season.

But what Vingegaard shared next was new: “At a certain point, we realized I may have built a bit more muscle than I had in the past,” he admitted with a smile, when we jokingly said, “Oops.” Accidentally too strong? Not quite. “It turns out I respond pretty quickly to strength training,” Vingegaard said. As for all the chatter about higher-intensity training, he was quick to downplay the drama: “We did include a bit more high-intensity work, but nothing drastic.”

Jonas Vingegaard’s increased muscle strength helped him during the Tour de France, but it’s also paying off now, especially on Stage 2 of the Vuelta. Two years ago, he would’ve never circled such a punchy uphill finish as a winning opportunity. Now, that mindset has changed. “You’re absolutely right,” he admitted. “When we woke up this morning, we decided not to chase, but of course I was hoping another team would, because then I’d have a good shot at the stage win. It really motivates me to be able to fight for stage wins, and the fact that we already have one is great for the whole team.”

It’s a sign of how eager and driven Vingegaard has been since last Thursday’s opening press moment before the Vuelta began. At Visma | Lease a Bike, they’re keeping an eye on it, but was stage 2 also a message to the cycling world from the Dane? “Not necessarily,” he said. “It’s more that if a stage win is within reach, you don’t let it slip. I really wanted to win when I saw it was possible. After the Tour, I was motivated for the Vuelta, so I wanted to show up in the best possible shape. I’m happy with how I felt today.”

Bram van der Ploeg ( Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email : [email protected])