{"id":282137,"date":"2025-11-25T08:33:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T08:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/282137\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T08:33:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T08:33:07","slug":"maybe-that-wasnt-so-smart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/282137\/","title":{"rendered":"Maybe that wasn’t so smart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Riding a criterium: it is a fun and often lucrative outing for a lot of pro riders. Yet, according to Mads Pedersen<\/a>, it was “absolutely the last thing he wanted,” as the Dane vehemently opposed the idea of a criterium. Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> did compete in one in Japan and responded to his compatriot’s criticism.”It’s a done deal. It’s so terrible to see, because none of the riders even try to make it look like they’re racing on a bike,” Pedersen previously left no doubt<\/a> about how he thinks about a criterium. “It is more important that they wear some kind of bicycle helmet with a top hat and a flap on it, in a sumo wrestler suit. That is what they are paid for,” the Dane was referring to the criterium in Japan, in which Vingegaard also competed.<\/p>\n

Fellow countryman Brian Holm offered some nuance. “It’s a race organized to make cycling more popular in Japan. I think they put quite a bit of money into it,” said the former rider, but Pedersen wanted no part of it. “I have turned down a few times. You should never say never, but it’s absolutely the last thing I want.”<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"vingegaard-saitama\"\/Vingegaard responds to Pedersen: “They’re still races”So Vingegaard did compete and even crashed in Japan. The Dane was helped back on his way (by UAE!) and eventually managed to win. When Ekstra Bladet<\/a> confronts the Visma star with compatriot Pedersen’s words about that outing, Vingegaard’s smile betrays that he has heard the words passed before.<\/p>\n

However, he disagrees with the Lidl-Trek rider’s words. “Obviously it’s probably not the toughest cycling race there,” Vingegaard is realistic. “But they are still races, and they are not always easy. I also did some races in Singapore, where I almost had to drop out.”<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"jonas-vingegaard\"\/Vingegaard explains trip to Japan: “I think it was a good experience”<\/p>\n

“I also think there are a lot of people who ride them for the experience, if you can put it that way,” said Vingegaard, who did the same himself and combined his trip to Japan with a family holiday. Also, the Dane says he wants to give something back to cycling, so for that he has no problem with a trip to Japan.<\/p>\n

Still, it was not a thunderous performance by Vingegaard. “It was raining in Japan and it was a bit slippery, so I ended up crashing. So maybe that wasn’t so smart,” he is honest. “But I think it was a good experience. Both the cycling race and the whole trip to Japan.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Riding a criterium: it is a fun and often lucrative outing for a lot of pro riders. Yet,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,9046,114899,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-282137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-mads-pedersen","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282137","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=282137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}