{"id":542000,"date":"2026-03-15T13:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T13:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/542000\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T13:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T13:14:10","slug":"visma-confident-that-a-giro-debut-will-boost-vingegaards-chances-against-pogacar-in-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/542000\/","title":{"rendered":"Visma confident that a Giro debut will boost Vingegaard\u2019s chances against Pogacar in July"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nThe Giro d’Italia and Tour de France dreamWinning the “Race to the Sun” would be great, but it is only a stepping stone toward Vingegaard’s massive goals for the year. This May, he will race the Giro d’Italia for the very first time, as he hopes to win the pink jersey and complete his collection of Grand Tour victories. More importantly, the team believes this difficult race will actually help him prepare to win the Tour de France against Tadej Pogacar<\/a> in July.<\/p>\n

“We truly believe that this will enable him to win the Tour,” Reef explained. “We know what we\u2019ve seen over the past two years, and that meant we had to try something new. What we\u2019ve observed from the Tour-Vuelta combination is that he performs very well after a Grand Tour, even better in the Vuelta. If we prepare well here, with a strong spring season, he can reach a very high level in the Tour and compete against Pogacar, because that\u2019s what\u2019s needed.”<\/p>\n

Even though the Giro is preparation for the Tour, Reef made it clear that Vingegaard is going to Italy to win. “Only Pogacar has done it in this era. We\u2019re ready for the challenge. When we wanted to win three Grand Tours in 2023, we asked ourselves: ‘Isn\u2019t that too big of a goal? Is it even possible?’ But we went for it. It\u2019s good to dream big, but also to have a plan and believe in something.”<\/p>\n

\"Jonas<\/p>\n

Jonas Vingegaard on the podium after winning stage 4 of Paris-Nice<\/p>\n

A new coach and ignoring the rumors<\/p>\n

Another big change for Vingegaard this year is his training. His long-time coach Tim Heemskerk has left, and Mathieu Heijboer has taken his place. Reef thinks this change could be exactly what the Danish star needs.<\/p>\n

“Mathieu doesn\u2019t hold back; he pushes,” Reef observes. “That\u2019s something that could bring about a positive change. We\u2019ll see. It\u2019s a shame that Tim has left. Over eight years of working together, Tim and Jonas built something, but maybe a change is good. It could bring something new.”<\/p>\n

Finally, Reef responded to the wild rumors spreading this week. Some reports claimed Vingegaard might move to INEOS Grenadiers, while others suggested he might retire early like Tadej Pogacar has discussed in the past. The team director quickly shut down these ideas.<\/p>\n

“Not at the moment. He enjoys what he does, and that\u2019s the most important thing. That\u2019s also what you can see, and what we feel,” he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Giro d’Italia and Tour de France dreamWinning the “Race to the Sun” would be great, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,6495,188598,8396,85,6494,165035],"class_list":["post-542000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-paris-nice","tag-remco-evenepoel","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-team-visma-lease-a-bike"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}