Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) has this week been exploring the key Pyrenean climbs of the 2025 Tour de France, where he will look to defeat main rival Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) to win a third yellow jersey this July.
There are still almost six weeks until Vingegaard will be seen in competition again after crashing at Paris-Nice and sustaining a concussion that kept him out of racing in the spring. He'll return at the Critérium du Dauphiné, then make one last trip to altitude, before reaching his main goal at the Tour.
Vingegaard said last week that his "focus is now fully on the Tour de France," and that "the preparations for this race have truly begun", after fully recovering from his concussion symptoms.
That preparation started with reconnoitres up the Col du Soulor and Hautacam, which will characterise stage 12 of the Tour, and the Col de Peyresourde, which will make up part of a brutal 14th stage alongside the Col du Tourmalet, Col d'Aspin and summit finish to Luchon Superbagnères.
The Pyrenees are where Pogačar all but ended the race for victory at last year's Tour.
After entering stage 14 to Pla d'Adet with a lead of just more than a minute from Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), Pogačar's domination of that day and the following 15th stage to Plateau de Beille saw him enter the Tour's final week with an unassailable lead of 3:09 to the Dane and 5:19 to the Belgian.
The world champion will be the heavy favourite to win a fourth maillot jaune come the start of the Tour in Lille on July 5, with Vingegaard looking likely to be the only rider capable of preventing that.
Having crashed heavily at Itzulia Basque Country in 2024, suffering several injuries, and only being confirmed as a Tour starter nine days before the first stage last year, the question mark of whether a full-strength Vingegaard can beat Pogačar's newfound best is still unanswered.
That gap seems to have widened, with Pogačar completing the fabled triple crown of the Giro d'Italia, Tour and World Championships in one season last year, and his most recent stunning Classics campaign. But Vingegaard has proved, in 2022 and 2023, that the Slovenian is far from invincible in the three-week Grand Tours.
"Let's face it, cycling needs a good Vingegaard in the Tour, otherwise it could be a bit boring," said Geraint Thomas to Luke Rowe on the latest episode of their Watts Occurring podcast, also commenting on the Dane's light racing approach.
"Dauphiné is his next race now, that's a bid mad, isn't it? I did speak to him briefly after Catalunya, and he said he was going to be [at the Tour de Romandie], but he had a bit of concussion, didn't he, so I think they were just playing that safe.
"I like the bit of mystery around him. These days, so much is just accessible, it's nice to have a bit of old-school 'This is our plan, I'm not telling anyone other than the team', let them speculate, let them chat whatever they want about us, but we've got out plan, we're going to believe in it."
After the Dauphiné, Vingegaard's level should be somewhat more apparent, especially with both Pogačar and Evenepoel also racing at the typical pre-Tour form marker. But even still, we likely won't know if he's at the level to beat the Slovenian again until racing at the Tour reaches the Puy de Sancy on stage 10 and then heads from Toulouse into the Pyrenees after the first rest day.
Once they arrive at the mountain range lining the French-Spanish border, the Dane will have good memories from Hautacam, where he dropped Pogačar and won stage 18 of the 2022 Tour to extend his overall lead en route to his first Tour victory.
However, the Peyresourde is Pogačar's territory, with its last two appearances featuring on stages he's won, in 2024 and 2021, and the climb's use in the 2020 race on stage 8 seeing him pull back 40 seconds on the likes of Primož Roglič with a solo attack.
Vingegaard completed his recon alongside Visma's head of racing, Grischa Niermann, but was also joined by three young Frenchmen on his four-hour recon of the 12th stage's two key climbs, who were starstruck to say the least.
"It was incredible. First of all, he was incredibly nice. He didn't act like a superstar, but like a normal person. He wasn't riding fast, but we still had to fight to hold on to his wheels," said Paul Capelle to TV2 Denmark.
"For him, it was a little training; for us, it was incredible."
Next up for Vingegaard will be an altitude camp in Sierra Nevada, before he races at the Dauphiné and then has more time at high ground in Tignes, with these next two months of preparation being vital for the fifth edition of his and the Slovenian's duel at the Tour de France.
