{"id":143273,"date":"2026-08-10T17:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T17:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/143273\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T17:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T17:02:10","slug":"it-would-be-a-disadvantage-having-that-anchor-michael-rasmussen-warns-denmark-against-selecting-jonas-vingegaard-for-the-montreal-world-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/143273\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt would be a disadvantage having that anchor\u201d \u2013 Michael Rasmussen warns Denmark against selecting Jonas Vingegaard for the Montreal World Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Rasmussen expects a different outcome. The former Tour de France contender doubts Vingegaard will race again this year and has even suggested his absence could stretch through the winter to Paris-Nice in 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a disadvantage having that anchor\u201d<\/p>\n

Rasmussen\u2019s concern goes beyond whether Vingegaard can recover quickly enough to make the start line. He believes Denmark risk committing resources and expectations to a rider who may not be capable of influencing the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually think so,\u201d Rasmussen told Viaplay Sport News<\/a> when asked whether taking an underprepared Vingegaard could become a disadvantage. \u201cIt would create unnecessary expectations that I do not think he would be capable of living up to.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then pointed back to Vingegaard\u2019s difficult appearance at the 2025 European Championships. The Dane was dropped early on the climbing course and abandoned long before the finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he rides the way he did at the Tour, then yes, he can make a difference,\u201d Rasmussen said. \u201cBut if he rides the way he did at the European Championships last year, then it is completely irrelevant. In that case, it would be a disadvantage having that anchor around, with huge amounts of energy being spent on him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vingegaard\u2019s condition at the Tour of Denmark did little to change Rasmussen\u2019s mind. \u201cYou could see with the naked eye that he had put on two or three kilos at the Tour of Denmark, and he is supposed to go up against Pogacar and all the others,\u201d he said. \u201cThings will have to look very different from walking around in sandals in Glyngore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jonas<\/p>\n

Jonas Vingegaard raced the 2025 European Championships for Denmark<\/p>\n

Pedersen still wants Vingegaard in MontrealPedersen has taken a far more optimistic view of the recovery<\/a>. \u201cI hope we get to make use of him at the Worlds,\u201d the 2019 world champion said recently on his Lang Distance podcast. \u201cI hope his collarbone heals enough, and I am speaking from experience here, Jonas: your collarbone will be healed by the time we race the Worlds.\u201dVingegaard\u2019s wife Trine has been much less certain<\/a> that another race is necessary after a season containing the Giro d\u2019Italia and most of the Tour. \u201cIf Jonas said he didn\u2019t want to race again, I would understand,\u201d she said after his Tour exit. \u201cBut I also do not know which races would be the obvious ones for him. And I have no idea how he will recover from that collarbone injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vingegaard himself has kept Montreal in consideration without setting a deadline for a decision. He has said the condition of his collarbone and his motivation after an exhausting year will determine whether he returns.<\/p>\n

Before the crash, 2026 had already delivered Paris-Nice, the Volta a Catalunya and a dominant Giro victory. Vingegaard won five stages in Italy and became only the eighth male rider to complete the set of all three Grand Tours before beginning the Tour just five weeks later.<\/p>\n

Montreal would put him immediately back against Tadej Pogacar and a field of elite one-day riders after weeks without competition. No preparatory race has yet appeared on his calendar, and Team Visma | Lease a Bike have not announced when he will return to racing.<\/p>\n

Denmark\u2019s final decision therefore remains open, with Rasmussen arguing that Vingegaard\u2019s name and palmares should count for little if the form required to justify a major role has not returned by September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rasmussen expects a different outcome. The former Tour de France contender doubts Vingegaard will race again this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[2813,27,26,48615,68532,54658,53553],"class_list":["post-143273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denmark","tag-cycling","tag-danmark","tag-denmark","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-michael-rasmussen","tag-team-visma-lease-a-bike","tag-world-championships"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117072294493894991","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}