{"id":1853304,"date":"2026-03-28T13:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T10:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1853304"},"modified":"2026-03-28T13:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T10:31:12","slug":"best-season-start-yet-puts-vingegaard-on-collision-course-with-pogacar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1853304","title":{"rendered":"Best Season Start Yet Puts Vingegaard on Collision Course with Poga\u010dar"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2268787152.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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Shane Stokes<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Published March 28, 2026 01:31PM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The gamble by Jonas Vingegaard to target the Giro d\u2019Italia prior to the Tour de France seemed at one point like a bid to avoid staking everything on a head to head with Tadej Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n

However such a perception is fast becoming irrelevant.<\/p>\n

The Dane is having what is arguably his best season start in years and picked up his fifth win of the year on Saturday, racing to his second victory in as many days.<\/p>\n

His mountain stage win at Queralt at the Volta a Catalunya was his second such triumph in as many days. It lifted him 1\u201922 clear of Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) with just Sunday\u2019s concluder to go.<\/p>\n

Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), who finished one step behind Vingegaard on the podium of the 2025 Tour de France, is third, 1\u201930 back.<\/p>\n

The past two days mark a dominant performance for the Danish rider, who looks locked in for big GC win in Barcelona on Sunday, as well as a potential victory in the points classification.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m really happy with the victory today,\u201d the Visma-Lease a Bike rider told Cycling Pro Net after the stage. \u201cMy team did a super good job, they were really good at controlling the stage today. That was really impressive and thank you for the work to my teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago Vingegaard won two stages, the overall, the points classification and the mountains jersey at Paris-Nice. Factor in his 4\u201923 winning margin there, the biggest since the 1930s, and he is clearly in extraordinary form.<\/p>\n

Is Poga\u010dar paying attention? He would be daft not to.<\/p>\n

\u2018Being along would not have been nice for me\u2019<\/h2>\n
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(L-R) Florian Lipowitz and Remco Evenepoel of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe with Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) at the Volta a Catalunya (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vingegaard captured the Tour title ahead of Poga\u010dar in 2022 and 2003 but then had big setbacks the next two seasons. He fell heavily in the Itzulia Basque Country race in 2024 and spent a month and a half away from racing.<\/p>\n

Last season was even worse, with concussion picked up in a Paris-Nice spill seeing him out of competition for almost three months.<\/p>\n

No wonder he wasn\u2019t at his best in either Tour.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s early days yet this season but, thus far at least, he appear right on course for a big, big year. His five wins thus far contrast with two for Poga\u010dar, although the Slovenian has only lined out twice.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s important is that Vingegaard is riding strongly and his confidence and morale are building, helping convince he and his Visma-Lease a Bike team that a third Tour win is very possible.<\/p>\n

The squad backed him fully on Saturday, although towards the end Vingegaard benefited from the work done by Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, who rode hard to try to set up Lipowitz for a push for the GC and also for the stage win.<\/p>\n

The latter goal didn\u2019t work out, but he is up to third overall. Vingegaard complemented them and noted that what they did actually stopped him from being exposed to attack.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey really did a good job there. They went a good speed on the downhill and not a lot of guys could follow,\u201d he said. \u201cI am happy that I could follow. Then they saw that Felix Gall was not there and they tried to use that to make sure of the podium.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess somehow that was a bit lucky for me, because being alone in that valley would not have been nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

On course for a huge Giro and Tour<\/h2>\n
\"Jonas
Jonas Vingegaard in the race leader\u2019s jersey at the Volta a Catalunya (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Firmly in the white and green leader\u2019s jersey on Saturday evening, Vingegaard just has Sunday\u2019s stage to negotiate now.<\/p>\n

It is 95.1km in length and takes in seven laps of the tough, tricky Montj\u00fcic circuit. It\u2019s a much punchier parcours than the high mountains of Friday and Saturday and the ramps and tricky descents could, in theory, be a little less suited to Vingegaard.<\/p>\n

However he\u2019s in superb form and does have a buffer of over a minute. He\u2019s looking locked on for the overall victory and for what would be victory number six this year.<\/p>\n

Could he even make it seven and take the stage?<\/p>\n

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\u201cTomorrow the main goal will be to just defend the jersey,\u201d he said. \u201cThat will just be our goal tomorrow. And then we will see.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not quite a denial. He and Visma-Lease a Bike may well have that in mind but, either way, he is in stomping shape. He is exactly where he needs to be just over a month from the start of the Giro.<\/p>\n

A couple of months ago that race seemed to some to be a consolation goal due to Poga\u010dar\u2019s expected dominance in the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

Now that\u2019s a lot less certain. There was very little between he and the Slovenian in the final week of last year\u2019s Tour.<\/p>\n

If things keep going to plan Vingegaard may be back to his very best in July. That sets things up for fireworks in France and rip-roaring race.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n

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Shane Stokes<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Published March 28, 2026 01:31PM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2268787152.jpg”] Shane Stokes Published March 28, 2026 01:31PM The gamble by Jonas Vingegaard to target the Giro d\u2019Italia prior to the Tour de France seemed at one point like a bid to avoid staking everything on a head to head with Tadej Poga\u010dar. However such a perception is fast becoming irrelevant. The Dane […]<\/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-1853304","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\/1853304","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=1853304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1853304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1853304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1853304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}