{"id":388397,"date":"2026-01-04T21:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T21:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/388397\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T21:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T21:50:14","slug":"vingegaard-set-for-giro-debut-but-are-his-tour-dreams-waning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/388397\/","title":{"rendered":"Vingegaard Set for Giro Debut, but Are His Tour Dreams Waning?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated January 3, 2026 12:16PM<\/p>\n

When Jonas Vingegaard pummeled Tadej Poga\u010dar not once but twice at the 2022 and 2023 Tours de France he, and not his Slovenian rival, looked to be on course to dominate the race and to potentially secure the outright record of six wins.<\/p>\n

However fast forward two and a half years and everything has changed.<\/p>\n

Second in 2024 and 2025, it seems that the Dane\u2019s priorities have shifted. The Giro d\u2019Italia rather than the Tour de France appears to be his big target for 2025.<\/p>\n

According to Marca<\/a>, Vingegaard has reached an agreement with the Giro organizers RCS Sport to make his debut in the race. The Spanish newspaper said the final decision will be made public in the coming weeks, but suggested that the conditions have already been accepted on both sides.<\/p>\n

If that is indeed the case, what does it mean for Vingegaard\u2019s career?<\/p>\n

Now 29 years of age, he has tried to capture the past two Tours but came up against an improved and, for now at least, unbeatable Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n

Vingegaard had a big crash in 2024 and went into the Tour under-raced, ending up 6:17 back.<\/p>\n

Last season was also complicated by the concussion he suffered in a crash in Paris-Nice. He took time out of Poga\u010dar on just one day, namely the time bonus for second place on stage 19, and finished 4:24 back in Paris.<\/p>\n

Nothing is set in stone, but with Poga\u010dar winning all around the past two years, Vingegaard\u2019s Tour dream is under pressure.<\/p>\n

Changing course, chasing history
\n\"VingegaardVingegaard en route to second overall in the 2025 Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 (Photo: Chris Auld)<\/p>\n

Deciding to ride the Giro d\u2019Italia should be seen in that light, and also in terms of the bigger picture. Last autumn Vingegaard triumphed in the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, his third participation in the event. He also collected three stages, and received a welcome confidence boost after his Tour near-misses.<\/p>\n

With victories from two of the three Grand Tours in the bag, his attention shifted to the other three week race on the calendar.<\/p>\n

Only seven riders have won all of the Grand Tours. Jacques Anquetil was the first to do so, completing the treble in 1963. The Frenchman was followed five years later by Felice Gimondi of Italy. Belgium\u2019s Eddy Merckx did likewise in 1973.<\/p>\n

Since then Bernard Hinault (France, 1980), Alberto Contador (Spain, 2008), Vincenzo Nibali (Italy, 2014) and Chris Froome (Great Britain, 2018) also joined that elite group.<\/p>\n

Now an eighth rider is vying to join the club. Vingegaard was asked about the treble last November.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning the three Grand Tours or the Tour de France in 2026? I think I\u2019d prefer to win all three Grand Tours,\u201d he told DHNet.be<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The pieces appear to be falling into place, but what does that say about his Tour de France chances?<\/p>\n

A lack of confidence?
\n\"JonasJonas Vingegaard congratulates Tadej Poga\u010dar on his win in the 2025 Tour de France (Photo: Chris Auld)<\/p>\n

Publicly, Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike are fully set on winning another Tour.<\/p>\n

The rider himself made that clear in the same interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Tour obviously remains the biggest objective, but now it\u2019s a question of whether we can combine the two next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s now going to be the goal, but doubling up is very difficult.<\/p>\n

Consider the stats: only eight riders have ever achieved the Giro-Tour double in the same year.<\/p>\n

Marco Pantani did so in 1998, and it took 26 years for it to happen again.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar was the one to close the gap then, capturing the 2024 title before going on to his third Tour win.<\/p>\n

However it seems a big call for Vingegaard to follow suit in France.<\/p>\n

His Slovenian rival has been on a complete roll since that year, winning almost at will. Pulling off the Giro-Tour double will require Vingegaard to first recover in time from his Italian exertions, and also to step up a level from his 2024 and 2025 performances.<\/p>\n

And while Vingegaard did win last year\u2019s Vuelta, he looked noticeably tired at times after his Tour exertions.<\/p>\n

Can he really beat Poga\u010dar after giving his all to win the Giro?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s theoretically possible, but what seems more likely is that he will mainly focus on completing the treble and then see how things play out in France in July.<\/p>\n

His team may disagree, but chasing the Giro win looks and feels a little bit like hedging his bets.<\/p>\n

Rather than staking everything in the Tour, he may consider it better to go to Italy with a very strong chance of victory than to risk playing second-fiddle to a rampant Poga\u010dar once again.<\/p>\n

Is that understandable? Yes.<\/p>\n

And yet his supporters might feel a little torn.<\/p>\n

Tour battle was closer than before
\n\"USUS rider Matteo Jorgenson congratulates his teammate Jonas Vingegaard at last year\u2019s Vuelta (Photo: Oscar Del Pozo \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

Like Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel would also love to top the podium in Paris.<\/p>\n

The Belgian was third in his debut in 2024 and is desperate to end a long wait for the next Belgian winner of the race.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a full 50 years since the last time a rider from that country triumphed in the Tour; Lucien van Impe did so in 1976 and since then the country has hoped in vain for another big success.<\/p>\n

He could have taken the same route as Vingegaard but has decided to stake everything on the Tour rather than chase the win in the Giro.<\/p>\n

All his chips are down on the race for yellow.<\/p>\n

Vingegaard is choosing otherwise and in ways it is understandable. It can\u2019t have been easy to watch Poga\u010dar dominate the past two years.<\/p>\n

However there is also room for encouragement if the Dane searches for it. While his stage 19 time bonus was the only actual gain he made over his rival in the whole race, he did match him on many of the stages.<\/p>\n

It was a far cry from the year before, when Poga\u010dar dropped him time and time again.<\/p>\n

Had Vingegaard not had such a disrupted preparation with his concussion, he may well have been a few percent better.<\/p>\n

And that could have made all the difference, tipping the scales and enabling him to attack a clearly tiring Poga\u010dar in the third week of the race.<\/p>\n

Still, what happened then happened. His fans could endlessly debate whether or not the win was possible; we will never know.<\/p>\n

What is clear though is that chasing the Giro win sidesteps the same all chips down decision Evenepoel is making.<\/p>\n

Post Giro and come July, we\u2019ll have a better idea if that was indeed the right choice.<\/p>\n

For now, though, Giro organisers and Italian fans will relish the thought of one of cycling\u2019s biggest stars chasing the maglia rosa.<\/p>\n

The race will be all the richer for it, and that\u2019s certainly a positive thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated January 3, 2026 12:16PM When Jonas Vingegaard pummeled Tadej Poga\u010dar not once but twice at the 2022…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,54263,82,102249,57421,54266,62850,72751,54267],"class_list":["post-388397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-parent_category-road","tag-sports","tag-tag-giro-ditalia","tag-tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tag-tour-de-france","tag-tag-visma-lease-a-bike","tag-type-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388397","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=388397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}