{"id":192048,"date":"2025-10-05T22:24:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T22:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/192048\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T22:24:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T22:24:22","slug":"he-didnt-take-it-seriously-enough-jonas-vingegaard-slammed-by-former-tour-de-france-winner-after-european-championship-dreams-fade-with-100km-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/192048\/","title":{"rendered":"“He didn\u2019t take it seriously enough” \u2013 Jonas Vingegaard slammed by former Tour de France winner after European Championship dreams fade with 100km to go"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBjarne Riis: \u201cHe hasn\u2019t trained. That\u2019s my best guess.\u201dFormer Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis<\/a> delivered the most stinging criticism in the aftermath, telling Feltet<\/a>\u00a0that Vingegaard simply hadn\u2019t done the work required to be competitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe hasn\u2019t trained. He hasn\u2019t done what he needed to do to be ready for the Euros. That\u2019s my best guess,\u201d Riis said bluntly. \u201cThere were 80 riders left in the peloton when he was dropped \u2013 and that was at the first real effort uphill. If that happens, it\u2019s because he hasn\u2019t trained.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riis, who has long called for Vingegaard to take one-day racing more seriously, said the result was sadly predictable. \u201cHe hasn\u2019t spent enough time on the bike since the Vuelta. Maybe he has another explanation, but this is what I believe. He hasn\u2019t taken it seriously enough, and he hasn\u2019t done the specific preparation needed to race for medals,\u201d said the 1996 Maillot Jaune.\u00a0\u201cHe\u2019s strong enough to do it \u2013 no question \u2013 but you have to put in the work. This isn\u2019t a stage race. It\u2019s a totally different kind of challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vingegaard admits: \u201cIt\u2019s true, I needed more time off the bike\u201d<\/p>\n

While the tone may have been harsh, Vingegaard himself didn\u2019t dismiss the criticism. In fact, he acknowledged that he struggled to recover in the aftermath of his Vuelta a Espana victory, where he fought through illness to secure the overall title.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll admit it \u2013 I needed more time off the bike than I\u2019d hoped,\u201d he told Feltet. \u201cIt took almost two weeks before I could train properly again. It wasn\u2019t that I didn\u2019t want to \u2013 it was that I couldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

The layoff proved costly. Unlike rivals such as Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel, who arrived in France with full race conditioning and momentum, Vingegaard\u2019s build-up was far from ideal \u2013 and it showed. \u201cI don\u2019t know if it was those two weeks off that made the difference today, or if it\u2019s just a kind of deep fatigue still in my body,\u201d he said. \u201cBut whatever it was, I didn\u2019t have the legs.\u201d<\/p>\n

A continued struggle with one-day racing<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s DNF continues a frustrating pattern: Vingegaard has not completed a one-day race since 2022. Since his last appearance at Il Lombardia three years ago, he has started just one \u2013 the 2024 Cl\u00e1sica San Sebasti\u00e1n \u2013 and failed to finish both.<\/p>\n

Riis, for one, doesn\u2019t believe this is a question of ability. \u201cHe\u2019s more than strong enough,\u201d he insisted. \u201cBut you can\u2019t just show up and expect results. You have to approach these races like the monuments they are. You have to commit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vingegaard, however, remains hopeful that his time in one-day racing will come. \u201cI still believe I can compete in races like these,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I\u2019ll need to prepare better. This was about riding in the national colours and testing myself \u2014 but obviously, I wasn\u2019t where I needed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether Sunday\u2019s collapse marks a turning point in how Vingegaard approaches one-day racing remains to be seen. But among his compatriots, the message is clear: talent alone is not enough.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bjarne Riis: \u201cHe hasn\u2019t trained. That\u2019s my best guess.\u201dFormer Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis delivered the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-192048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}