Visma | Lease a Bike warns Pogacar with a motivated Vingegaard: "Big advantage that we started early"

Jonas Vingegaard and Visma | Lease a Bike have set their sights on 2025. The Dutch cycling team experienced an incredible amount of setbacks in 2024, with crashes and injuries, including those affecting their key leader Jonas Vingegaard. The Dane wants to fight back, says his coach Tim Heemskerk in an interview with Velo.

Vingegaard, who convincingly won the Tour de France in 2022 and 2023, fell significantly short against Tadej Pogacar in 2024. After a crash in the Tour of the Basque Country, it was nearly a miracle that the now 27-year-old rider even made it to the start line and managed to finish with a stage win and a second place in the general classification. After that, he was exhausted, although he still competed in the Clasica San Sebastián (DNF) and won the Tour of Poland.

According to Heemskerk, Vingegaard was able to recharge well over the summer, with the arrival of a second child and a good time in Denmark. "He’s already back in training and doing well. We’re already building up toward 2025," is the first warning directed at Pogacar and his team. "Jonas is in a good place and full of confidence. He’s already looking forward to the coming year. Starting training early allows us to build a solid foundation. We needed that after the crash and everything we missed over the summer."

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Vingegaard aims to catch up to Pogacar

It’s all part of preparing to go head-to-head with Pogacar again in 2025. Pogacar had his best year ever in 2024, but it was without his top rivals at full strength. "Jonas is training well, but he’s also focusing on his strength and recovery. We’re working to restore the muscle loss he experienced," explains Heemskerk, describing how far his pupil was from peak condition. "Jonas spent twelve days in the hospital without any activity. He lost a lot of muscle, which affected him all year. His body needed time to recover, but he went straight from the hospital into rehab and then to the Tour. That cost a lot of energy, and he never fully recovered from it."

Meanwhile, Vingegaard is fully healthy and ready to start the chase. "We can only acknowledge that Pogacar raised the bar this year. That’s why starting early with Jonas is such a big advantage. It’s essential if we want to close the gap to Pogacar. We can’t just sit back and say Jonas would have beaten him with better preparation this year. We have to evaluate everything and consider every aspect to beat Pogacar. This involves next week, this winter, the entire lead-up to the Tour. He’s in a good place both mentally and physically, but we also have to be careful that he doesn’t peak too early. That’s something to watch out for with riders of his talent."

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Vingegaard will also work on his weaknesses

Balancing things out, getting his body back in sync. Once Vingegaard is there, Heemskerk wants to move forward. "Now we have the time to work on his weaknesses. His strength and explosiveness took a big hit from that crash. Every week, things are looking better, and everything is gradually coming back to where it was. After that, we can take the next step toward competitiveness."