“After the fall a year ago I thought it was all over. I changed my way of running”

Jonas Vingegaard he is undoubtedly one of the best-known faces on the world cycling scene. The Dane, in his personal showcase, can already boast two Tours de France and a Vuelta a España, won in 2025. The Team Visma Lease a Bike rider, in his young career, also had to overcome a very bad injury, due to a crash at the Tour of the Basque Country in 2024.

On that occasion Vingegaard fractured seven ribs, as well as the clavicle and sternum. A long and hard rehabilitation process followed, at the end of which the Dane managed to regain his best physical shape after a long time. The 2024 Tour relaunched him but the native Hillerslev’s way of racing will never be the same from the day of his fall.

As cyclingpronet reports, Vingegaard told the press his thoughts after the accident: “It was the first time I fell and I didn’t try to get back on the bike right away. For a moment I even thought I was suffering from internal bleeding. In those moments I thought it was all over. I cried a lot. I kept thinking about my daughter Frida, Trine and our son who was yet to be born. The idea that I would abandon all of them was unbearable. When I was standing on the ground, after the fall, I thought: ‘If I survive, I’ll end my career here anyway.’

“In the end, my wife and I understood that I should continue to be a cyclist, because it is my passion. But when I was in the hospital, I really didn’t think about the Tour de France. When you are in intensive care, you can’t even go to the bathroom, let alone think about the Tour. We talked a lot about the way I have to behave in the race. We agree that, if I realize that the situation is too dangerous, I slow down and rather try to recover afterwards. I also did this during stage number 11 of the 2024 Tour, the one that I then won. Pogačar had attacked just before a descent and I didn’t want to take any risks. So, I lost some time at that point. On the issue of crashes, I thought that serious things would never happen to me, because I’m good at riding the bike and because I know how to avoid accidents.” the Dane then concluded.