{"id":1831442,"date":"2026-03-15T19:58:49","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T16:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1831442"},"modified":"2026-03-15T19:58:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T16:58:49","slug":"rivals-be-scared-dominant-jonas-vingegaard-expects-further-performance-gains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1831442","title":{"rendered":"Rivals, Be Scared: Dominant Jonas Vingegaard Expects Further Performance Gains"},"content":{"rendered":"
Maybe Tadej Poga\u010dar won\u2019t have it his own way this year. That\u2019s what fans of Jonas Vingegaard will be hoping, with an effervescent performance in Paris-Nice promising good things for the months ahead.<\/p>\n
Vingegaard sealed overall victory in the race on Sunday, finishing second in a very close sprint with Lenny Martinez and\u2014more significantly\u2014ending the eight day event almost four and a half minutes clear of his closest rival.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a crushing performance, the fourth biggest winning margin in the history of the race and, as noted by Pro Cycling Stats, the best since the 1930s.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot to me,\u201d Vingegaard said. \u201cIt has been the one that I just couldn\u2019t get right. Now finally I get it right. That makes me extremely happy. It is a good start to the year and something that I am really proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dane has competed in the race two times before. In 2023 he finished third overall behind Poga\u010dar and David Gaudu, conceding 1:39 to his big rival but then going on to defeat him months later in the Tour.<\/p>\n
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He also competed in the race last year, but crashed out and suffered concussion as a result of his fall on stage five.<\/p>\n
In what is a case of third time\u2019s the charm, he won stages four and five, was second on stage eight, and ended up four minutes 23 in front of Dani Martinez (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). The rider in third, Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost) was over six minutes adrift.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a really emphatic result, and underlines just how well he is performing.<\/p>\n
\u2018Just about racing\u2019<\/h2>\nJonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) wins Paris-Nice (Photo: Anne-Christine Poujoulat \/ AFP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Vingegaard\u2019s whitewashing of his GC rivals is a big story in itself, but doesn\u2019t give the full picture. He also won the points and mountains competitions, joining Sean Kelly and Bernard Hinault as those who achieved that trio of classification victories in the same edition.<\/p>\n
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The result is an important one for him as it comes following two tough spring campaigns in as many years. In 2024 he crashed heavily in the Itzulia Basque Country and was off the bike for many weeks. Last year he crashed out of Paris-Nice.<\/p>\n
He finished second behind Poga\u010dar in the past two editions of the Tour but will hope that a smoother buildup will see him back to his very best.<\/p>\n
Thus far the signs are encouraging. Daniel Benson\u2019s substack reported this month that Vingegaard has been posting his best-ever numbers in training.<\/p>\n
If so, there is a problem for his rivals: he believes he has more room to grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think definitely it is very, very good at the moment,\u201d he said of his form. \u201cI do still think I can improve for the upcoming races so hopefully I can do that and especially for the Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, he is resists suggestions that his dominance in Paris-Nice is in some ways a message to Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n
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\u201cNo, I think for me it is just about racing,\u201d he said. \u201cTrying to win the races that I am doing. This was my first race of the year. I am just extremely happy with how everything went here.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s right to be, and so too are his team and his supporters. The Tour is months away but it and his upcoming goal of the Giro d\u2019Italia are looking a lot more interesting that could otherwise be the case.<\/p>\n
Poga\u010dar has dominated the past two seasons. Given Vingegaard\u2019s Paris-Nice performances, that may not necessarily be the case this time round.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2266216664.jpg”] Shane Stokes Updated March 15, 2026 08:08PM Maybe Tadej Poga\u010dar won\u2019t have it his own way this year. That\u2019s what fans of Jonas Vingegaard will be hoping, with an effervescent performance in Paris-Nice promising good things for the months ahead. Vingegaard sealed overall victory in the race on Sunday, finishing second in […]<\/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-1831442","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\/1831442","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=1831442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1831442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1831442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1831442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Jonas](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2266206130.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")