Vingegaard eager to compete in next year's "toughest World Championships of the decade", says Danish coach

Last year, Vingegaard competed in the European Cycling Championships, which was his first race as an elite rider on the national team. He would normally have competed in the World Championships in Canada as well, but his season ended early due to a crash and a broken collarbone in the Tour de France. Brandon McNulty seized the opportunity, while Mads Pedersen was the top Danish rider in sixth place.

Given the number of meters of elevation gain, Vingegaard would have held his own. But next year’s course will be even tougher.

National team coach Michael Mørkøv discussed this in an interview with Feltet. “I haven’t discussed it with Jonas yet, except that he and I know there’s a world championship in Sallanches next year, and that it might just be the world championship of this decade best suited for climbers and a rider like Jonas.”

With a staggering 5,700 meters of elevation gain in the foothills of the Alps, it may well be the toughest World Championships of the 21st century. And so Mørkøv hopes his team leader will be there.

“My clear impression, just like this year, is that Jonas really wants to race for the national team and really wants to compete in the World Championships, but that this, of course, has to be balanced with his other commitments.”

The national team coach knows that you really need to have a rider of Vingegaard’s calibre on the team. “I’d say we have a wide range of world-class cyclists, but as we’re seeing in these championships, it’s always the same riders who end up taking home the medals. We see that same pattern in the distribution of victories in the Tour de France.”

"It's a fact that without a rider like that, it's hard to win a medal," he continues.

At the World Championships, Denmark also had to improvise quite a bit: Mattias Skjelmose couldn't make it either.

“It’s clear that we would have been stronger at the World Championships with Skjelmose. We can also see from how the race unfolded that Mattias would have added excitement to the race here at the European Championships and brought out the best in the others.”

But even without its star riders, Denmark still put in some great performances. “I see it as a positive that we have a large group of riders who are eager to ride for the Danish national team and who actually deliver results. There’s not much we can do about the fact that we sometimes fall short. The riders are doing their best, and we have to accept that. There’s still optimism about the future of the national team.”