Jonas Vingegaard isn’t sugar-coating what happened at the European championships. His first outing in Danish colours ended with a DNF and a quite blunt assessment: it simply wasn’t there.
What stings a little less now, he says, is the decision not to race the world championships in Rwanda the week before. Speaking to Feltet.dk, Vingegaard said his form was nowhere near good enough for a race of that level.
Many had hoped the multiple Tour de France champ–and 2025 Vuelta a España winner, would ride in his first pro road worlds. He has only raced the event back when he was an under-23. Unfortunately–despite the hilly parcours that would suit him–it didn’t happen.
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“I’m glad I showed up and tried,” he said. He said riding the worlds “would have been an even bigger disaster.” He explained that travelling to Africa hadn’t been realistic after riding both the Tour de France and the Vuelta. “It would’ve been a waste of everyone’s time,” he added.
Vingegaard has already outlined why things unravelled. After winning the Vuelta a España, his body shut down. He wasn’t able to train at all for two weeks. He now adds that his first proper session came right around the week before the worlds. “It wasn’t that I didn’t want to train — I just couldn’t,” he said.
Heading into the Euro road race, some late sessions gave him and the Danish staff a bit of optimism, but on the day, he had nothing to give. He abandoned early, clearly exhausted.
If there was one upside, Vingegaard said, it’s that the performance answered critics who questioned his repeated absences from national-team events. “Of course I wanted to do better,” he said. “But racing showed why I’ve said no other times — because I’m completely worn out and have nothing left.”
He hopes the message lands. “Instead of people saying, ‘Jonas doesn’t care about the national team,’ they’ll understand there’s a reason I don’t always line up.”
As for the future, the disappointment hasn’t put him off riding for Denmark again — but only with the right preparation. “If I were to ride the euros or the worlds, I wouldn’t do it in a season with both the Tour and the Vuelta,” he said. Proper buildup is non-negotiable.
Could 2026 be the year he’s back in the red and white? “The worlds are definitely something I’d like to race next year,” he said, “but it depends on how the rest of my season looks.”