Hello, here it is again. The Dane Jonas Vingegaard, who has not raced since his victory in the Tour de France this summer, is taking part in the Tour of Croatia which begins this Tuesday, September 27 and ends next Sunday, announced his training, the Jumbo-Visma. Last July, 25-year-old Vingegaard won the Grande Boucle, his first Grand Tour, ahead of Slovenian Tadej Pogacar and Briton Geraint Thomas, becoming the second Dane to win the legendary French event after Bjarne Riis in 1996.
But since July 24 and the stage completed on the Champs-Elysées, in Paris, the climber of the Jumbo-Visma had no longer appeared in the race. In an interview published Monday by the Danish daily Ekstra Bladet, he said he needed to “(se) relax” and explained that he experienced “a funny feeling” after his victory on the roads of France after a high-end duel. range with Pogacar.
“All year, you prepare for the Tour de France, and suddenly it’s over, and then it’s like… I don’t want to say + empty +, but it’s a funny feeling”, he said. “I can handle the pressure. It also makes sense to be protected from time to time and to be able to relax a bit. It’s been a good time, and it’s rare to have two months without racing, but the team allowed me to do it, and I’m really happy about it,” he added.
In the meantime, Vingegaard has given up competing in the Tour of Denmark on his land and then the World Championships in Wollongong, Australia, to the great regret of his national coach, Anders Lund. “I would have liked Vingegaard to be part of the group of riders who want to participate in the world championships”, regretted the latter in a press release in mid-August. To explain these impasses, the sports director of the Jumbo Visma, Frans Maassen, had mentioned mid-August in the Ekstra Bladet the “difficult times” crossed by his rider. “I understand that viewers want to see Jonas, and I spoke to him about it. But he had very difficult moments after the Tour,” he said. For his return, on the steep roads of the Balkans, Vingegaard will again cross paths with Geraint Thomas, leader of the Ineos-Grenadiers.
The “Cro Race” begins in Osijek and will end on October 2 in Zagreb. The Italian Vincenzo Nibali (2017) or the Briton Adam Yates (2019) have put their names on his list.