Vingegaard has noticed flaws in the new Tour preparation and points to the Giro

Vingegaard was the guest of honor at the Tour of Denmark. There, he gave the audience a glimpse into how he’s doing after his crash in the Tour. He was also open about whether he would return to racing this year or if he wouldn’t be back on the bike until next year. He also mentioned that his rival Tadej Pogacar had sent him a kind message after his serious crash.

That crash was, of course, a major topic of conversation. It happened on the very day that Visma | Lease a Bike and Vingegaard wanted to put pressure on Pogacar’s yellow jersey, but things went wrong heading toward the Plateau de Solaison. At that point, he was already 4.30 minutes behind the Slovenian, leaving him with only three mountain stages and a time trial to make up the deficit. Wasn’t it far too late?

Vingegaard now says they might have had to approach it differently. The much-celebrated new preparation plan may not have been ideal after all. “It’s clear that you have to think about how his strengths compare to mine,” he begins in an interview with TV2. “We may have misjudged the Tour a bit this year, particularly regarding the fact that we should have prepared better for the longer climbs.”

Visma | Lease a Bike’s focus was clearly on the final week of the Tour, with the two ascents of Alpe d’Huez as crucial stages. But in the earlier weeks, the Danish team leader riding for the Dutch squad had already lost a lot of time. The gap was significant on the Col du Tourmalet, but also in other stages: when Pogacar accelerated, Vingegaard couldn’t keep up. That’s exactly the problem, he says.

The Giro d’Italia, which he won, featured mainly grueling mountain stages. The climbs were long, and that’s where Vingegaard excelled. But that also meant he had to make some sacrifices. “It’s quite possible that we should have realized I needed to be more explosive and should have studied the route a bit more closely,” he explains. “But it’s clear that it’s difficult to ride the Giro and then suddenly become explosive.”

That explosiveness was definitely missing from the Dane’s performance in the Tour. Two years ago, he won the stage to Le Lioran, but this time he couldn’t keep up with Pogacar. On top of that, he also lost time to riders like Remco Evenepoel, Paul Seixas, and Florian Lipowitz. The stage to Le Markstein a few days later wasn’t much different: there, once again in the final meters, he lost time to his rivals.