Jonas Vingegaard is already back in training and his Visma-Lease a Bike are already working on how to take on Tadej Pogačar at the next Tour de France, knowing they have a lot of work to do if they hope to defeat the Slovenian and win the Tour.
The Dane hasn't raced since winning the Tour de Pologne on August 18. He became a father for a second time soon after, but has kept a low profile. His terrible crash at the Itzulia Basque Country race in April and his serious injuries meant he only raced for 44 days in 2024.
Vingegaard suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs and a broken collarbone, compromising his preparation for the Tour de France. He tried to take on Pogačar but eventually finished 6:17 behind in Nice. He was left physically and mentally tired.
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While most riders, including Pogačar, are enjoying their off-season holidays, Vingegaard is already back in the saddle, laying down a new base for 2025 and Visma-Lease a Bike are working on how to close the gap on their biggest rival.
"He had a long break, his last race was the Tour de Pologne in August and then he became a father. He's started training and building up for next year," said Grischa Niermann, who is now the head of racing at Visma-Lease a Bike after Merijn Zeeman left to work in football.
"I think that's normal and in the next week, we'll make a good plan and see exactly what his 2025 season will look like."
The Tour de France should be central to Vingegaard's 2025 season. However riding the Giro d'Italia beforehand, could be an option, to help Vingegaard return to his best for July.
"We have to decide but we won the Tour de France twice and not this year, so normally it'll be his first objective. We have not decided yet but it's most likely.
"The Giro-Tour is an option, we saw that Tadej Pogačar did it this year. There's also the Tour-Vuelta, or just the Tour, we need to decide."
2025 Tour
Vingegaard, like Pogačar and most other big-name overall contenders, was not at the presentation of the 2025 Tour de France route.
Niermann and Visma-Lease a Bike team manager Richard Plugge watched the route presentation from the Paris Palais des Congrès and liked what they saw. The first week in northern France could be a test of nerves and bike skills for Vingegaad but the numerous mountain top finishes and high mountains suit him well. They will now begin to work on the Visma-Lease a Bike strategy for 2025.
"We like it and it looks really good for Jonas," Niermann said.
"I think it's a very nice parcours, I think it's a very hard Tour de France, especially in the second half. There are some nice climbs and nice stages, where Jonas has really good memories, those with 5000m of climbing, like the stage to the Col de la Loze.
"Now we have to do our homework to close the gap that was there this year. We know that Jonas with normal preparation and without the crash, can be a lot better than this year. But there's also a big gap with Pogačar, so we have a lot of work to do. We're optimistic that it's possible but Pogačar will be the man to beat."
Directeur Sportif Frans Maassen is well aware of the work Vimsa-Lease a Bike needs to do and the improvement they need to find to challenge Pogačar.
"Pogačar is simply the best. It is up to the rest of the peloton to look to reduce the gap. We will have to do everything with all the other teams to beat him. Hopefully the gap will be a bit smaller again next year," he recently told Wielerflits.
"They call him the new Eddy Merckx. I never saw Eddy do his thing but what Pogačar does is phenomenal. But two years ago we could beat him in the most important race of the season, why wouldn’t that be possible now?
“He is currently very unreachable, but Jonas at his very best should be able to compete with him. This year it didn’t go exactly as we wanted with our leaders, they had some serious crashes. But with a good winter and good preparation for the coming season it will be different."
