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Things are never easy for Jonas Vingegaard.
The Dane’s hopes of having a clean run into the Giro d’Italia and a Tour de France rematch with Tadej Pogačar just took a hit.
Visma-Lease a Bike confirmed Friday the two-time Tour winner will not start the UAE Tour after a high-profile training crash and subsequent illness derailed his planned 2026 season debut.
“I was really looking forward to returning to the UAE Tour and am therefore disappointed that we have had to make this decision,” Vingegaard said Friday. “However, the combination of the crash and subsequent illness made it necessary. It is better to fully recover first so that I can then focus on my next goals.”
There’s no official confirmation on whether the rest of his calendar will be impacted. His next scheduled race is the Volta a Catalunya in March in Spain.
Crash-illness double up
The setback comes in the aftermath of a high-profile crash last month that triggered a firestorm of debate.
Vingegaard crashed while descending on a solo training ride near Málaga in Spain, evidently after trying to lose a cyclo-tourist who was trying to hold his wheel.
The incident went viral and put a growing social media trend of super fans hounding top pros under the microscope.
Vingegaard’s decision not to race the UAE Tour indicates that perhaps there was more to the crash than initially believed.
This week, Vingegaard was also spotted on video training in heavy rain in Spain as a wave of tropical storms has battered the Iberian peninsula, forcing riders in training camps on Sierra Nevada to retreat indoors.
High winds forced race organizers to alter Thursday’s individual time trial at the Volta a Valenciana, and more rain and wind are forecast for next week’s Ruta del Sol and Volta ao Algarve.
Another unwelcome setback for Vingegaard
The two-time Tour winner had earmarked the UAE Tour as a low-risk way to open 2026, but it’s the latest setback for the Dane as he continues his quest to dethrone Pogačar.
The Dane’s past few seasons have been defined by uneven approaches to the Tour.
In 2024, a brutal crash at the Itzulia Basque Country left him battered before the Tour de France. Last spring, a concussion at Paris-Nice forced another reset.
Each time, the tough-as-nails Vingegaard battled back to finish second in the Tour, but for 2026, the team was hoping to get Vingegaard through the Giro d’Italia relatively unscathed.
Missing the UAE Tour shouldn’t impact his season too much, however, but Visma brass obviously do not want to take chances so early in the season.
Pogačar, meanwhile, will make his season debut at Strade Bianche and won’t start his first stage race until the Tour de Romandie in late April as he puts chasing Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix at the center of his spring ambitions.
The UAE Tour will still count on Remco Evenepoel and Isaac del Toro, with the Mexican sensation making his season debut.
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