{"id":1788843,"date":"2026-02-23T07:31:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T04:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1788843"},"modified":"2026-02-23T07:31:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T04:31:48","slug":"jonas-vingegaard-launches-most-audacious-season-yet-at-paris-nice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1788843","title":{"rendered":"Jonas Vingegaard Launches Most Audacious Season Yet at Paris-Nice"},"content":{"rendered":"
Updated February 23, 2026 07:55AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Jonas Vingegaard will fast-track his most audacious season yet with a start at Paris-Nice after a crash and subsequent illness forced him out of a planned season debut at last week\u2019s UAE Tour.<\/p>\n
The Danish leader of Visma-Lease a Bike confirmed he has fully recovered and is amped to race after a disrupted start to his 2026 campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am excited to be at the start of Paris-Nice once again. It is a prestigious race with a lot of history,\u201d Vingegaard said Monday. \u201cAs a team, we have a title to defend here. After crashing and falling ill, I took the necessary time to recover. Now I feel ready to start racing again and am looking forward to it after a long winter of training.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two-time Tour de France winner had originally targeted the UAE Tour as his early-season hit out, but a training crash compounded by illness in Spain\u2019s wet winter last month ended that plan.<\/p>\n
Better safe than sorry, so the \u201cRace to the Sun\u201d \u2014 one of cycling\u2019s legendary one-week races \u2014 is his first major target in a calendar reshuffle in what will be an audacious Giro-Tour double attempt in 2026.<\/p>\n
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His rough start this season \u2014 which included a high-profile crash involving a following fan \u2014 echoes equally turbulent springs in both 2024, with his season-altering crash at Itzulia Basque Country, and again last year at Paris-Nice.<\/p>\n
He crashed out of the French stage race last March with a concussion that derailed his momentum and reshaped his build-up going into the annual and inevitable Tour clash with Tadej Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n
Avoiding more setbacks<\/h2>\nVingegaard didn\u2019t want to take risks by pushing it too early.<\/span> (Photo: Bram Berkien\/VLAB)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Vingegaard\u2019s return to racing will help bring some fresh momentum to what\u2019s been a rocky start to 2026 for Visma.<\/p>\n
Visma will start as defending champion, but Matteo Jorgenson \u2014 who won back-to-back editions \u2014 is taking on a new challenge at Tirreno-Adriatico.<\/p>\n
For Vingegaard, even more important than winning is to re-establish race rhythm and avoid more crashes or setbacks before his most ambitious season yet.<\/p>\n
Vingegaard is embracing the elusive Giro d\u2019Italia and Tour de France double this summer, and if he wants to win pink and challenge for yellow, there is little margin for error.<\/p>\n
Any further crashes, illness, or interruptions could prove fatal against the unstoppable force of Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n
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The Slovenian, meanwhile, opens his season at Strade Bianche as he puts early-season focus on completing the monument sweep.<\/p>\n
That means the sport\u2019s two dominant grand tour forces will not face off before July, with their only direct showdown set for the Tour.<\/p>\n
With many of the peloton\u2019s top and rising stars already posting big results early in 2026, Vingegaard will want to remind everyone he is still a force to reckon with.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Andrew Hood<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Updated February 23, 2026 07:55AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Z8C_8654.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated February 23, 2026 07:55AM Jonas Vingegaard will fast-track his most audacious season yet with a start at Paris-Nice after a crash and subsequent illness forced him out of a planned season debut at last week\u2019s UAE Tour. The Danish leader of Visma-Lease a Bike confirmed he has fully recovered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1788843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1788843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788843\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1788843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1788843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1788843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Vingegaard\"](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Contentshoot-World-Tour-men-kit-2026-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")