Double Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) has said that he thinks professional cycling is too dangerous for him to allow his children to participate in it, were they to ask if they could follow in his wheeltracks.
Vingegaard suffered life-threatening injuries in a mass crash last year in the Itzulia Basque Country, in which numerous riders were hurt.
In a lengthy interview during the Volta ao Algarve with Nieuwsblad, Vingegaard said that organisers had a role to play in making the sport safer, as well as the UCI.
But he also said that some riders were partly responsible for the sport having its risks, arguing that some riders "race as if there are no brakes on a bike.”
Asked by Nieuwsblad if he would let his two children race when they were older, Vingegaard answered: "To be honest, if my daughter or son asks that question – 'daddy, can we race?' – the answer is ‘no’. The way the sport is now… It’s just too dangerous.”
Currently taking part in Paris-Nice, during the interview Vingegaard also discussed his Itzulia crash on a sweeping, fast downhill section of road running through dense woodland, explaining that in his opinion the organisers had made an error by "sending us down a road with tree roots underneath it".
However, he said that other factors involving the riders also made racing more dangerous too.
“We riders also fight and race at times when it is not really necessary. That was also noticeable in the Algarve: sometimes we fight for position for a bend that goes nowhere. Sometimes there is too little respect."
Vingegaard also pointed out that riders battling for position could have been responsible for the terrible crash suffered by teammate Wout van Aert last year in Dwars door Vlaanderen. He concluded: "Too many riders race as if there are no brakes on a bike.”
"In general, I would say that everyone in cycling needs to realise the scale of the safety problem. That is still not the case enough. And everyone has a responsibility: the riders themselves, the organisers and the UCI.”
This is not the first time Vingegaard has discussed race safety this season in public. At the Volta ao Algarve, after numerous riders went off course late on stage 1, the next day at the start Vingegaard called on the UCI to take action.
"Something like this shouldn't happen in cycling, I think the organisers should take this seriously and the UCI as well," Vingegaard said.
"It wasn't really clear where we had to go. In my opinion, in a sprint we have to have it clear where we have to go and where we should not go."
In the wide-ranging interview, Vingegaard also discussed how he had only begun succeeding at a relatively late age in the sport, how Wout van Aert was the "best helper you could have in a race," and his extreme anxiety as a young amateur and again as a young pro, which caused him to vomit at times from his nervousness during races themselves.
He also rejected the idea that his racing style was in no way spontaneous, pointing to a stage in the Tour de France in 2023 where Visma changed their strategy mid-race because they intuited – correctly – that arch-rival Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) had been vulnerable to attack.
"Tadej has his style, I have mine. But sometimes it bothers me a bit when we are portrayed as 'calculated'," he said.
"Sometimes we really do things on intuition. An example: on the stage to Marie Blanc in 2023 in the Tour we said in advance that we would certainly not attack. But in the end we felt that Pogačar was at his limit and we changed everything.”
Strategies for Paris-Nice
In a separate interview with another Belgian newspaper, Het Laatste Nieuws,, Vingegaard discussed his Paris-Nice participation and confirmed that he was trying to win as many WorldTour week-long stage races as possible. The Dane's only previous participation in Paris-Nice, in 2023, resulted in a third place overall behind Tadej Pogačar and David Gaudu.
"That's why I'm riding the Volta a Catalunya instead of the Tour of the Basque Country," Vingegaard explained. "Winning them all is almost impossible, but I want to try and collect as many as I can."
Vingegaard also told the newspaper that there was no issue with Matteo Jorgenson, his teammate, also wanting to win Paris-Nice and added that although he has not been at altitude yet and was not in top form, after an overall win in the Volta ao Algarve, he was hoping to take "an extra step" in the Course au Soleil.
"You win as a team. We have already proven that we can also be at our best with multiple leaders at the start."
“We [Vingegaard and Jorgenson] have an excellent relationship. I am not a selfish guy who only thinks of himself. If he gets into a more promising position than me, I will gladly sacrifice myself;" he explained.
"I do not see Matteo as a rival, but as an ally. In the Algarve I was a bit isolated, which made it difficult at times. With an extra asset that changes. Now we can make things tougher for the opposition."
