Jonas Vingegaard has won the Tour de France now on two occasions, and at long last he’s obtained a Vuelta a España title. He is only lacking the Giro d’Italia to complete his Grand Tour trilogy and is expected to make his debut in 2026. Spencer Martin and Johan Bruyneel have discussed this possibility in The Move podcast.The possibility has been discussed for a long time, and has been proposed by the CyclingUpToDate team as the most logical option as well. The Dane has in the past two years reached an extremely high level at the Tour as well as the necessary consistency (even though in 2024 he suffered a life-threatening crash in April) but has simply not been able to take time on Tadej Pogacar where it mattered: The mountains. The Slovenian at the time being seems fully unbeatable baring disaster when he is tackling a race with climbing, and that is unlikely to change.
“From his point of view I think it makes a lot of sense, he wants to win all the Grand Tours. He’s won the Tour twice, he’s won the Vuelta now, he wants to win the Giro. It makes a lot of sense,” Johan Bruyneel argued. “Of course we don’t know what’s happening in his mind and whatever, deep down I think right now Jonas is probably thinking ‘if Tadej stays at this level I can’t beat him at the Tour. So let’s look for something else’.”
Visma would’ve dominated this year’s Tour if Pogacar weren’t present, with the two teams above the competition by far, and Visma attacking the race almost on the daily. Even ill for the last half of the race, Vingegaard was then able to win La Vuelta. “…Visma definitely agree with that idea of him going to the Giro, that they think it won’t compromise his chances at the Tour which I think is right”:
The era of Tadej
And that may be the more logical option taking into consideration that full focus on the Tour might not offer better chances of a victory. Winning the Tour de France for any rider other than Pogacar at the time being seems to depend more on the World Champion not having his best legs, or having bad luck.
“Should the question not be ‘can he win the Tour if he wins the Giro’ but ‘can he finish second at the Tour if he finishes the Giro’ because he’s not beating Tadej…” Martin argued. “He just has to be good enough in case Tadej has a problem”.
That however seems to be fully possible, as in 2024 for example, Pogacar raced the Giro-Tour double with his best level in both, seemingly not suffering effect from the fatigue. “I think he can, I mean if Tom Dumoulin can do it he can do it […] Just recognize that we’re in the era of Tadej, and plan accordingly”.