{"id":124582,"date":"2025-09-09T06:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T06:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/124582\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T06:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T06:55:10","slug":"improving-jonas-vingegaard-confident-of-la-vuelta-glory-despite-trepidation-over-time-trial-in-different-race-without-tadej-pogacar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/124582\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Improving’ Jonas Vingegaard confident of La Vuelta glory despite trepidation over time trial in ‘different race’ without Tadej Pogacar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vingegaard holds a 48-second lead over second-placed Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in the standings with six stages remaining.<\/p>\n

The Dane has won two stages so far, and feels he is in constant ascendancy as he bears down on a maiden La Vuelta win.<\/p>\n

“I believe 100% that I can do it. We have a very strong team and I feel that I am improving all the time,” he said in an interview with Danish outlet TV2<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had a few good days so far, but there have also been some less good days, if you can put it that way. I still believe that I will improve in this Vuelta.”<\/p>\n

\"picture\"<\/p>\n

Highlights: Vingegaard powers to Stage 9 victory, Pidcock climbs GC<\/p>\n

Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n

Vingegaard, though, laid out some mild concerns over the upcoming time trial – set to take place on Thursday, and noted Almeida’s superiority in the race format.<\/p>\n

“It’s exciting and it really depends on the day,” Vingegaard said.<\/p>\n

“He is also a very good time-trialist and an outstanding rider in general. I think I’ll mainly focus on myself and try to do as well as possible, but time trials don’t really suit me.”<\/p>\n

With a firm grasp on the red jersey heading into the latter stages of the 21-stage road race, Vingegaard said his job of leading the pack has been made easier by the absence of Tadej Pogacar.<\/p>\n

The Slovenian opted to skip La Vuelta following his Tour de France success, with the UAE team instead backing Almeida and Juan Ayuso in Spain. Vingegaard said it is a “different race” without Pogacar. <\/p>\n

“Pogacar isn’t here,” he said. “That makes it a little easier in a way. When Pogacar is there, you have to try to find a weak spot in him almost every day.”<\/p>\n

\"picture\"<\/p>\n

Pedersen pays tribute to team-mates after \u2018really important\u2019 Stage 15 win<\/p>\n

Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n

Vingegaard will look to tighten his grip on the red jersey when the riders return from a rest day to take on Stage 16 on Tuesday – live on TNT Sports and discovery+<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) sits 2’38” behind Almeida ahead of the resumption.<\/p>\n

Watch and stream La Vuelta on TNT Sports and discovery+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vingegaard holds a 48-second lead over second-placed Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in the standings with six stages…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,9046,101,36242,56,54,55,20998],"class_list":["post-124582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-sports","tag-team-visma-lease-a-bike","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-vuelta-a-espana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}