{"id":259237,"date":"2025-07-12T15:16:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T15:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/259237\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T15:16:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T15:16:21","slug":"things-can-go-haywire-quickly-jonas-vingegaards-wife-says-tour-de-france-cyclists-are-close-to-burnout-is-that-actually-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/259237\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Things can go haywire quickly’: Jonas Vingegaard’s wife says Tour de France cyclists are close to burnout – is that actually true?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the article that the entire Tour de France <\/a>can\u2019t stop talking about: Jonas Vingegaard<\/a>\u2019s wife, Trine Hansen, says the two-time Tour winner is \u201cburning the candle at both ends\u201d, and complaining that \u201cso much travel\u201d and a near-year-round schedule is \u201csqueezing the lemon too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

The inference from Hansen was clear: if her 28-year-old husband continues in this vein, he will soon reach burnout<\/a> and have a physical and mental collapse owing to too much workload. Speaking to the Danish newspaper Politiken<\/a>, she added: \u201cIt starts in February and it\u2019s back and forth every other week\u2026 It\u2019s a really tough life. Jonas doesn\u2019t recharge when he\u2019s on another three-week altitude training camp with the team. He really needs to be with us at home in Denmark to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vingegaard\u2019s Visma-Lease a Bike team immediately attempted to shut down the story, insisting that there was no problem with their star rider\u2019s schedule, while he himself played down his wife\u2019s comments. Nevertheless, the interview, which took place a fortnight before the race, has sparked a debate that continues to reverberate around the Tour bubble: does Mrs Vingegaard have a point? Is the intense schedule of camp-race-camp-race-camp, with so little time at home, risking athlete welfare? In a nutshell: are modern day cyclists really close to burnout?<\/p>\n

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\"Jonas<\/p>\n

Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Poga\u010dar tend to race less than most riders in the peloton<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Breaking down the numbers<\/p>\n

Until the 1990s, most professional cyclists would ride between 50 and 55 race days a year, less than last year\u2019s average of 79 days, per data from ProCyclingStats.<\/a> But it\u2019s also true that riders in the 60s, 70s and 80s often competed in winter track events \u2013 something that isn\u2019t uncommon today, but which happens less and less \u2013 which increased their number of competition days. In the late 1990s, when the sport began to globalise more and top-tier racing became mandatory for top division teams, the number of average race days shot up: between 2006 and 2011, most of the best riders in the world were riding at least 90 days a year; sprinter Erik Zabel, a winner of 149 races, rode in excess of 100 race days for nine consecutive years before 2000 and 2009.<\/p>\n

Since the Covid pandemic, the number of race days among the WorldTour peloton has dropped marginally, from 82 in 2019 to 79 in 2024. The biggest stars, Vingegaard, Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a>, Mathieu van der Poel, and Remco Evenepoel rode even less last season \u2013 44, 58, 42, and 62, respectively. The numbers suggest that more was demanded of riders, especially the superstars, a few decades ago, contradicting Mrs Vingegaard’s statements. But is that true?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to come across as old-school cycling, but I scratch my head: how are they actually away from home now more than in the past?\u201d asks Rolf Aldag, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe\u2019s lead sports director at the Tour, who rode professionally from 1990 to 2005. In his last six seasons as a rider, Aldag averaged 99 race days per year. “In the past I\u2019ve roughly done 115 race days [113 in 2000 was his highest – ed], plus travel, Six Day track races in the winter, the whole of December I was training in California, and then we\u2019d go to Mallorca. We didn\u2019t do altitude camps, but we still had training camps for several weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s changed is not the duration of time away from home, but the destination. Mallorca and other favoured spots like Calpe and Tuscany are out during the season, and high-mountain landscapes like Tenerife, Andorra, Sierra Nevada and Tignes have replaced them. \u201cMaybe it\u2019s just the feeling that\u2019s different,\u201d Aldag says.<\/p>\n

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\"Teide<\/p>\n

Teide in Tenerife is frequented by WorldTour cyclists throughout the year<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Months away<\/p>\n

How often is an elite-level rider away throughout the year? Stephen Barrett, the head coach of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, breaks down the figures: \u201cOur top guys do two three-week altitude camps per season, and also one big team camp in December, so you\u2019re talking 10-12 weeks a season just at camps \u2013 that\u2019s a conservative number for some guys, by the way. On top of that you have the races, which are anywhere between 50 to 70 days, give or take.\u201d<\/p>\n

Altitude camps have been around for decades, but in the past five years their popularity has exploded. Riders even go high in the winter nowadays to be able to be competitive throughout the season. \u201cFebruary races used to be preparation races, but now they\u2019ve become so important that there\u2019s no such thing as a preparation race. More and more guys are going to altitude in January,\u201d Barrett continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cRiders go to altitude before their first peak of the year which takes in Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, and then they\u2019ll go back to altitude for their second peak, which will either be the Giro d\u2019Italia or the Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those going to the Tour, they typically spend most of May up Teide in Tenerife, or at Sierra Nevada in southern Spain. After riding the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 or Tour de Suisse, some riders then return to altitude for two weeks before the Tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cTop-up camps are becoming more common,\u201d Barrett adds, “but we also know that if a guy goes to altitude for six weeks, there\u2019s a good chance they\u2019re going to burn out. It\u2019s a balancing act and we have to be very conscious and adaptable to how riders respond.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jonas<\/p>\n

Jonas Vingegaard is aiming for his third Tour title this July.<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Constant monitoring<\/p>\n

Going by Barrett\u2019s calculations, if a rider spends around three months a year at camps, and then roughly the same duration travelling to and from races and competing, that\u2019s around six months away from home. Teams put in measures to keep riders mentally fresh, and thus many riders welcome their families to camps; some teams, such as Lidl-Trek, host camps in Andorra, aware that more than half of the peloton now reside in the small Pyrenean principality<\/a>. For riders that respond negatively to altitude \u2013 such as Bahrain Victorious\u2019s Matej Mohori\u010d \u2013 they are kept at home.<\/p>\n

Adriano Rotunno, UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s medical director, explains that there is a limit on the amount of time a rider should spend at altitude: \u201cThe optimal elevation a rider should be [sleeping] at is between 1,800 and 2,000m, and two to three weeks maximum at a time.\u201d Why can\u2019t they stay longer? \u201cIf you operate too much with low oxygen, eventually what starts to happen is that the physiological parameters can go off. Yes, you improved your haemoglobin values, but at what cost? It\u2019s fatiguing at altitude, and especially if you\u2019re not born there or are not used to living at 3,000m, your physiology is not adapted to training at high intensities in such surroundings.<\/p>\n

\u201cRiders also use a heck of a lot of iron as fuel to continue to develop red blood cells, and if that starts to go down then ultimately your performance will start to dip, and then you\u2019ve negated the whole point of going to altitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monitoring a rider at altitude is a daily task. Rotunno goes on: \u201cWe check a rider\u2019s blood levels, sleep quality, heart rate, heart rate variability, appetite, mood, general motivation levels, rate of perceived exertion, and all these metrics get put together to give a global picture of their parameters. That helps us to decide if a rider is moving in the right direction and if we\u2019re periodising their training correctly, and if there is diversion in one of the metrics from what we expect, it could indicate that there is something wrong and that\u2019s where we intervene.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the case of a rider on the brink of burnout, they\u2019d likely pulled from racing and camps. \u201cWe had a previous case where a rider\u2019s physical parameters started to be mismatched,\u201d Rotunno remembers. \u201cWe caught it early, but it was a reminder that things can go haywire quite quickly, and they can become chronic over time. It\u2019s why we have to really be on the button in terms of monitoring these parameters, because these guys operate at such a high margin \u2013 they\u2019re like little thoroughbred horses \u2013 that one little slip and it can derail their entire season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vingegaard’s wife argument was that increased expectations to win is creating fertile conditions for burnout, but Rotunno says that all teams \u201cvery strictly\u201d control a rider\u2019s workload. \u201cCycling has changed: you go to every race to win now, but there\u2019s no point getting a guy to the race line if he\u2019s burned out,\u201d he adds. \u201cWe really keep a strict tab on our guys and make sure they\u2019ve either had a good recovery, or post-big event they\u2019re going to get a structured recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UAE<\/p>\n

UAE Team Emirates-XRG, like all teams, spend most of December in eastern Spain.<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

What the riders think<\/p>\n

Jayco-AlUla\u2019s leader at this year’s Tour is Ben O\u2019Connor, who in 2024 finished second at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a and World Championships, and fourth at the Giro d\u2019Italia<\/a>. This year he went to altitude in Tenerife in February before racing two March stage races and then the Ardennes Classics. He then went to Sierra Nevada for 23 days ahead of the Tour de Suisse, before returning to his home in Andorra before the Tour. \u201cYou can go back to altitude if you want [after Suisse] but I\u2019ve tried it in the past and I didn\u2019t really like how I felt so I prefer to be at home before,\u201d the Australian says.<\/p>\n

When O\u2019Connor is asked if riders like him are at risk of burnout because of the amount of months they\u2019re away from home, he states: \u201cYou\u2019re a professional athlete \u2013 you\u2019ve got to do what you\u2019ve got to do. If you complain about it, well, you don\u2019t have to do it. It\u2019s up to you to choose and sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The message O\u2019Connor projects is that sacrifices are necessary for a professional cyclist to achieve their dreams. \u201cIt\u2019s just like being a CEO of a major company: you have to fly to Sydney, to New York, and go to field sites to see what\u2019s going on and how your company is performing. It comes with the job.\u201d So there\u2019s no space for being homesick? \u201cOnce again, [if a rider is] you wouldn\u2019t be a good athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Australian Ben O’Connor had a typical build-up to this year’s Tour de France: six weeks at altitude.<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

‘Embrace it’<\/p>\n

Cycling in 2025 is starkly different to what it was 20 years ago: bikes, clothing, helmets, nutrition plans and salaries have all markedly advanced. Schedules have altered, too: riders race less, but race more intensely. Still, it would be stretching the truth to suggest that riders are away from home more than ever. The difference is not the amount of days they\u2019re on the road, but where they are.<\/p>\n

The upshot is: no matter what era a rider is competing in, if they want to be a professional cyclist, they\u2019ve simply got to accept a life of travel and hotel stays. \u201cI\u2019ve been in this sport for 35 years now,\u201d Red Bull DS Aldag says. \u201cMy daughter studies in Amsterdam and my wife is mainly in South Africa. We see each other 30 days a year. But we decided to do so and who would I blame other than myself? It\u2019s a free world: if you want to reduce it, you reduce it and that\u2019s your decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vingegaard’s wife’s intervention has sparked much debate at the Tour, but, Aldag laughs, it won\u2019t be leading to a rethink of altitude camps \u201cHaha!\u201d he responds to the suggestion of a blanket ban of them. \u201cNo, it has to be constant learning. We race, we do top-up camps, but we also send them home and then race. We have learned that we have to give riders time alone at home between altitude camps.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor has the last say: \u201cIt\u2019s part and parcel of the job. [Being at altitude] is about being with a good crew and having a good atmosphere. And that\u2019s about it. I don\u2019t need babysitting. Embrace it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the article that the entire Tour de France can\u2019t stop talking about: Jonas Vingegaard\u2019s wife, Trine Hansen,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-259237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114840927471502455","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}