Vingegaard and the unexpected truth: 'Last year I thought about quitting'

Jonas Vingegaard has revealed a side of himself that few knew. In a touching interview with Danish broadcaster TV2 , the Visma | Lease a Bike champion confessed that he had seriously considered retiring from professional cycling in 2025. Strong, sincere words that left a lasting impression.

"Last year, I said that if things stayed the same, I wouldn't be able to continue," Vingegaard stated bluntly. "That's why we changed some things. The team noticed how I was, they understood that I wasn't happy. They accepted that we had to change something, and we did."

The Dane endured two very tough seasons, indelibly marked by a horrific crash at the Tour of the Basque Country in April 2024 , an accident that put his life at risk. But the difficulties weren't just physical: the constant pressure, prolonged training camps at high altitude, and obsessive weight and fitness management had eroded his mental balance.

"As a cyclist, you feel like you're constantly on a diet. You're always thinking about your weight, you're always out training. There's so much demanded of you. All of this takes a toll on your body and mind," explained the Scandinavian rider, touching on an increasingly central issue in modern cycling: burnout.

Vingegaard called on his team to reduce long altitude camps and to personalize training programs more. "I think in general we should focus more on the individual, on what best suits the individual rider," he emphasized. "To make cycling a sustainable sport again, we probably need to move towards creating individual programs for all riders."

The result? A completely transformed Vingegaard in 2026. He won Paris-Nice and the Volta a Catalunya , then dominated the Giro d'Italia , taking his first Corsa Rosa title and completing the hat-trick of Grand Tours. An extraordinary season that propelled him into the Tour de France with an aura of invincibility, albeit with a few shadows: in the first major mountain stage, on the Col du Tourmalet, he lost 2 minutes and 42 seconds to his eternal rival Tadej Pogačar .

"Yes, I'm much more motivated this year. And I'm much happier to be a cyclist," Vingegaard concluded with a smile worth more than a thousand watts.