Vingegaard: “I know I can beat Pogacar”

Jonas Vingegaard said this Tuesday:

–Don’t forget: a few weeks before the Tour de France I had seven broken ribs and a fractured sternum. The collarbone was broken into three or four pieces. He had a broken finger and both lungs were punctured. I spent eight days in intensive care, twelve days in total in the hospital. With that background, who could expect him to stand up to Pogacar in the Tour?

(And he did it: he was second).

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And it went back to April, to the Tour of the Basque Country, to that slip that had knocked him down, and also to Evenepoel and Roglic, the accident that had conditioned the season of the cycling peloton and had smoothed things out for Tadej Pogacar, insulting champion of almost everything last year, Giro, Tour and World Cup.

–If I can be at the start of the Tour with the best preparation and the best possible shape, I can aspire to a third victory (after 2022 and 2023) –said Vingegaard (28) in the presentation of his team, Visma-Lease , in another chapter of the presentation session.

(This Monday, in Rome, the Giro d’Italia 2025 had also shown its face).

Shortly before the last Tour I broke seven ribs, my sternum, my collarbone, a finger…”

Jonas VingegaardCyclist

A good part of the cycling course oscillates around the Tour (this year it will be held from July 5 to 27), we all know that.

However, there are more quotes.

Vingegaard has confirmed his debut in the Volta a Catalunya (March 24 to 30), where he will face Primoz Roglic, and also his presence in the Vuelta a España (August 23 to September 14), apart from the Vuelta al Algarve , the Paris-Nice, the Dauphiné and the innovative World Road Championship in Kigali (Rwanda).

Determined to establish itself as the best team in the world, Visma will deploy a sensational squad in the Tour: Wout van Aert, Sepp Kuss, Matteo Jorgenson and Simon Yates will accompany Vingegaard, who has just become a father for the second time.

While the team got on stage to present themselves, Van Aert (30) was already pushing himself on the pedals. On Sunday he will compete in the cyclocross World Cup in Benidorm and in March he will enter the classics season: the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.