Jonas Vingegaard targeting Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana in 2025
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Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard of Team Visma Lease a Bike speaks to journalists during the presentation of the cycling team in La Nucia, Spain.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
LA NUCIA, Spain – Jonas Vingegaard will eye a third Tour de France title and also race the Vuelta a Espana in 2025, he announced on Jan 14 as his Visma–Lease a Bike team prepare for the new season.
His teammate Wout van Aert will race in both the Tour and the Giro d’Italia, although his main aims will be to win the one-day classics – Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
Vingegaard, 28, also attempted a Tour de France-Vuelta double in 2023, but finished second to American Sepp Kuss in the Spanish race.
“It (Tour de France) is the race that means the most for me. It’s the biggest race of the year and there’s something special about the Tour de France,” said Vingegaard, who won the coveted yellow jersey in 2022 and 2023.
“I want to be there with the best possible preparation and in the best possible shape I can be. My biggest goal will of course be the Tour de France again, to try to win that for the third time... then, later on, I will do the Vuelta a Espana.”
The Danish star finished second on the Tour in 2024 behind Tadej Pogacar after being hospitalised following a nasty crash on the Tour of the Basque Country in April.
He said the injuries were worse than initially reported.
“The injuries were very bad, I had seven broken ribs, a broken sternum, my collar bone was in three or four pieces, I had a broken finger and both of my lungs were punctured, so that was not so good of course,” he said.
“I was in intensive care for eight days, that really says how bad it was... That I was able to make it to the Tour de France was a victory in itself and something I’m really proud of.”
Vingegaard will race both Paris-Nice and the Tour of Catalonia to prepare for the start of the Tour de France in Lille on July 5.
Belgian van Aert also endured an injury-hit 2024 campaign after two heavy crashes.
The 30-year-old will focus on trying to add to his one career “Monument” one-day victory, which came in the 2020 Milan-San Remo. He has finished second or third six times in the five major classics since.
“I’m not in the shape I want to be in yet, but I still have time until the season starts. The injury is healed and I can train like I should so I believe it won’t affect me in 2025,” he said. AFP
