{"id":495479,"date":"2026-02-24T03:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T03:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/495479\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T03:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T03:48:12","slug":"vingegaard-returns-to-racing-ahead-of-audacious-giro-tour-double","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/495479\/","title":{"rendered":"Vingegaard returns to racing ahead of audacious Giro-Tour double"},"content":{"rendered":"

The road to the Giro-Tour double now includes legendary French stage race as Vingegaard wants to silence any doubters after a crash-and-illness marred approach to 2026.<\/p>\n

\"Vingegaard\"<\/p>\n

Vingegaard will debut 2026 at Paris-Nice after a crash and illness slowed his preparation. (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/p>\n

Updated February 23, 2026 07:55AM<\/p>\n

Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> will fast-track his most audacious season yet with a start at Paris-Nice<\/a> after a crash and subsequent illness forced him out of a planned season debut at last week\u2019s UAE Tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Danish leader of Visma-Lease a Bike<\/a> confirmed he has fully recovered and is amped to race after a disrupted start to his 2026 campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am excited to be at the start of Paris-Nice once again. It is a prestigious race with a lot of history,\u201d Vingegaard said Monday. \u201cAs a team, we have a title to defend here. After crashing and falling ill, I took the necessary time to recover. Now I feel ready to start racing again and am looking forward to it after a long winter of training.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two-time Tour de France<\/a> winner had originally targeted the UAE Tour as his early-season hit out, but a training crash compounded by illness in Spain\u2019s wet winter last month ended that plan.<\/p>\n

Better safe than sorry, so the \u201cRace to the Sun\u201d \u2014 one of cycling\u2019s legendary one-week races \u2014 is his first major target in a calendar reshuffle in what will be an audacious Giro-Tour double attempt in 2026.<\/p>\n

His rough start this season \u2014 which included a high-profile crash involving a following fan<\/a> \u2014 echoes equally turbulent springs in both 2024, with his season-altering crash at Itzulia Basque Country, and again last year at Paris-Nice.<\/p>\n

He crashed out of the French stage race last March with a concussion that derailed his momentum and reshaped his build-up going into the annual and inevitable Tour clash with Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Avoiding more setbacks
\n\"Vingegaard\"Vingegaard didn\u2019t want to take risks by pushing it too early. (Photo: Bram Berkien\/VLAB)<\/p>\n

Vingegaard\u2019s return to racing will help bring some fresh momentum to what\u2019s been a rocky start to 2026 for Visma<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Visma will start as defending champion, but Matteo Jorgenson<\/a> \u2014 who won back-to-back editions \u2014 is taking on a new challenge at Tirreno-Adriatico.<\/p>\n

For Vingegaard, even more important than winning is to re-establish race rhythm and avoid more crashes or setbacks before his most ambitious season yet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Vingegaard is embracing the elusive Giro d\u2019Italia and Tour de France double<\/a> this summer, and if he wants to win pink and challenge for yellow, there is little margin for error.<\/p>\n

Any further crashes, illness, or interruptions could prove fatal against the unstoppable force of Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n

The Slovenian, meanwhile, opens his season at Strade Bianche as he puts early-season focus on completing the monument sweep<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That means the sport\u2019s two dominant grand tour forces will not face off before July, with their only direct showdown set for the Tour.<\/p>\n

With many of the peloton\u2019s top and rising stars already posting big results<\/a> early in 2026, Vingegaard will want to remind everyone he is still a force to reckon with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The road to the Giro-Tour double now includes legendary French stage race as Vingegaard wants to silence any…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,54263,82,56902,57421,81379,198777,54266,54267],"class_list":["post-495479","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-american-racing","tag-tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-tag-matteo-jorgenson","tag-tag-paris-nice","tag-tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-type-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495479","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=495479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}