{"id":144892,"date":"2025-09-18T06:49:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T06:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/144892\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T06:49:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T06:49:10","slug":"jonas-vingegaard-believes-he-has-closed-gap-to-tadej-pogacar-after-la-vuelta-win-and-has-returned-to-high-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/144892\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonas Vingegaard believes he has ‘closed gap’ to Tadej Pogacar after La Vuelta win and has returned to ‘high level’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) has been the dominant rider in men\u2019s racing in 2025, distancing himself from the pack with a string of dazzling performances.<\/p>\n

Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) was expected to be the closest challenger to Pogacar at the Tour de France as both vied for a third title, and although he was, Pogacar still won by over four minutes.<\/p>\n

Vingegaard, though, was coming off an injury-hit start to the season and has just boosted his confidence with victory at La Vuelta.<\/p>\n

He told Feltet<\/a> that his triumph has given him belief that he can challenge Pogacar next year.<\/p>\n

“Yes, I think so. But I also think that the Tour de France gave me some faith and hope,” he said. <\/p>\n

“It’s clear that I had some bad days in the Tour, which I still have a hard time explaining, but somehow I also think that when I was on my days, he couldn’t drive away from me, so I feel like I’ve closed the gap on him from last year.”<\/p>\n

Vingegaard won the Vuelta by one minute and 16 seconds from second-placed Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates).<\/p>\n

He triumphed on three stages in the race, including the penultimate stage that featured a steep climb to the finish.<\/p>\n

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

Watch: Pogacar salutes McNulty as UAE end with dominant one-two at GP de Montreal<\/p>\n

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

“It is clear that here in the Vuelta I also think that when I was at my level, I also had a really, really high level,” added Vingegaard.<\/p>\n

Vingegaard and Pogacar will not face off at the UCI Road World Championships as the Dane is not competing.<\/p>\n

The UCI Road World Championships take place from September 21-28 and will be live on TNT Sports and discovery+<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The European Championships in France follow on October 1-5, and they are on the agenda for both Pogacar and Vingegaard.<\/p>\n

Watch and stream top cycling action live on TNT Sports and discovery+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) has been the dominant rider in men\u2019s racing in 2025, distancing himself from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,9046,101,8782,56,54,55,20998],"class_list":{"0":"post-144892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-jonas-vingegaard","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tadej-pogacar","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom","15":"tag-vuelta-a-espana"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144892","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=144892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}