‘I feel I’ve closed the gap to him from last year’ – Vuelta a España victory boost’s Jonas Vingegaard’s Grand Tour confidence against eternal rival Tadej Pogačar

Jonas Vingegaard and his Visma-Lease a Bike team celebrated their Vuelta a España victory at their service course in the Netherlands on Tuesday, the emotions of a difficult race and the satisfaction of success mixing with future ambitions.

Vingegaard rode to the entrance of the service course in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, wearing his red race leader’s jersey and riding his special red Cervélo bike. Team staff held flares and congratulated the Dane on securing the team’s third Grand Tour victory after Simon Yates won the Giro d’Italia and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot won the Tour de France Femmes.

No official celebrations are planned in Denmark and Vingegaard is expected to spend time at home before riding the road race at the European Championships in France on October 5 and then Il Lombardia on October 11. Like his Vuelta rival João Almeida, he has opted not to ride the World Championships in Rwanda.

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Vingegaard is already harnessing his success of 2025 as motivation for 2026.

He has hinted he would like to ride the Giro d’Italia at some point to complete his Grand Tour triptych but seems keen to take on Tadej Pogačar yet again in the 2026 Tour de France.

Pogačar dominated this year’s Tour but Vingegaard hopes to build on some improvements. from the Vuelta.

“I believe that when I was at my level in the Vuelta, I also demonstrated a really high quality of racing,” Vingegaard told Feltet.dk after the improvised Vuelta podium ceremony in Madrid on Sunday night, which was suggested by Tom Pidcock’s family, with other teams then invited and the makeshift podium created with a race backdrop and cooler boxes as the podium steps.

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“It’s clear that I had some bad days in the Tour, which I still struggle to explain. However, when I was on my game, he couldn’t ride away from me, so I feel I’ve closed the gap to him from last year.”

Vingegaard rode the Tour-Vuelta double for the second time in his career this year and seems to have fully recovered from his terrible crash injuries of 2024. He now has more confidence for the future.

“Yes, I think so. I also believe the Tour de France gave me some belief and hope,” he said.

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Vingegaard won the Vuelta as the pro-Palestine protests intensified. The final stage was ended before riders could reach central Madrid after the final kilometres was invaded by protesters.

Vingegaard has always shown understanding for the position of the protesters but wanted the Vuelta to fish safely.

“At no point was I really in danger. I also didn’t see them run into the road in front of me. The organisers did a good job,” Vingegaaard told Dutch television channel NOS, refusing to enter the political debate that exploded due to the protests.

“Everyone has the right to demonstrate. I hope everyone got away unscathed, because it looked quite violent,” he told Sporza.

“I do hope we can continue to do our job in the future. Teams and organizers invest a lot of time and money in it, so it would be a shame if we couldn’t finish the races. For now, it seems to be limited to Spain.”