While winning the Tour de France for a third time remains Jonas Vingegaard's, and his team Visma-Lease a Bike's, main objective for 2026, the Dane said that his preference would be to complete the set of Grand Tours with a maiden victory at the Giro d'Italia on debut.
He's teased already that a Giro-Tour double attempt could be on the horizon, but has advanced this further, speaking in Japan having won the Tour de France Saitami Criterium at the weekend despite crashing earlier in the race.
Vingegaard added a first Vuelta a España red jersey to his two yellow jerseys from the Tour de France, and after that overall victory was hungry to join the list of seven riders to have won the Giro, Tour and Vuelta, which includes the likes of Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Chris Froome.
"Winning the three Grand Tours or the Tour de France in 2026? I think I'd prefer to win all three Grand Tours," Vingegaard told DH Les Sports+.
"After the Tour de France and the Vuelta, I still have the Giro left… but we haven't yet decided if I'll be competing in it next season," he added, noting how the Tour would likely remain on his schedule.
"We still need to discuss it with the team. The Tour obviously remains the biggest objective. But now it's a question of whether we can combine the two next year."
Of course, standing in his way of winning the Tour again remained Tadej Pogačar, the man he beat in 2022 and 2023, but has lost to the past two seasons. The Slovenian was also the most recent person to complete the Giro-Tour double, after no rider managed the feat for 26 years.
Pogačar's dominance has grown significantly and Vingegaard, while finishing as runner-up, has been no match for the World Champion at the past two Tours. The Dane wasn't giving up the ghost, however, confident that he still had ample room to improve after a major crash affected his build-up two years ago and a concussion disrupted his approach this past year.
"Sometimes, Tadej can seem truly untouchable. He's very strong. He's undoubtedly the best rider in the world right now," said Vingegaard of his long-term rival. "But if I tell myself he's unbeatable, it would mean giving up on the idea of catching him. So I won't say that.
"I can understand that, from the outside, that's the impression our duel gives right now. But I think I still have a chance to beat him. I'm still developing, and I feel like I've only just gotten back to the level I was at before my crash in the Basque Country in 2024.
"That means it took longer than I thought for me to come back. Today, I can put out the same watts as before the crash. And I feel like I still have room to improve. But maybe he does too…"
Pogačar's teammate Tim Wellens recently revealed just how close his leader was to abandoning the Tour this past July due to a knee injury, which was kept quiet during the race, but Vingegaard had little to say on this, knowing all too well the struggles which you have to overcome to win the three-week tests.
"I had no idea about it. But to be honest, I'm not thinking about it and I'm just trying to focus on myself," he said.
"I've also had more complicated days, where I was sick or weak, during a Grand Tour. It's not easy to overcome. But we don't have a choice, we have to do it."
Whether he gets to race the Giro and the Tour, or only the latter in 2026, Vingegaard commented on the gruelling, but backloaded Tour de France route, which was unveiled at the end of October, with two days up to Alpe d'Huez – up different routes – set to decide things on the final weekend.
It's a brutal set of tests after an already testing parcours through France after the start in Barcelona, but Vingegaard has said this wouldn't have been his preference.
"The 2026 Tour de France has been designed to maintain suspense and get progressively harder as the days go by, culminating in this huge third week, but to be honest, I would have liked it to be a bit tougher a bit earlier," he said.
"In any case, you have to be at your absolute maximum at the end. I've often had my best days in the third week, so I hope that will be the case again on the penultimate stage, with 5,600 meters of elevation gain, and the finish at Alpe d'Huez. It's a pretty crazy stage. Quite surprising, too. Perhaps one of the toughest in history. But I'm looking forward to it and I hope to have great legs that day."
