Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) has returned to riding outside for the first time since his horror crash at Itzulia Basque Country in April, with high hopes of returning in time for the Tour de France.
The two-time defending champion stated he would “do everything I can” to make it to the Tour’s Grand Depart on June 29 in Florence after only being released from hospital in Spain on April 16.
It has been a long road back for the Dane after breaking his collarbone and ribs and suffering a pneumothorax (collapsed lung) in the high-speed crash but his road to recovery seems to be on track.
“This is the first time back on the bike for me riding outside and it's really nice to finally be able to ride like normal again and finally to be able to ride on the road is really amazing. I’m really looking forward to taking the next steps too,” said Vingegaard in a video released by the team.
“I feel good, it’s improving day by day. I still have some things to recover from but it's going better and better. Of course, I hope to be there at the start of the Tour de France.
“We don't know exactly how my shape and how my recovery will go but I will do everything I can to get there in my top shape.”
As their GC leader and two-time defending Tour de France champion Vingegaard recovers from his injuries, Visma-Lease a Bike have continued their scheduled preparation for the Tour by exploring the stage 9 gravel route and heading to altitude camp in Sierra Nevada.
Matteo Jorgenson, Tiesj Benoot, Sepp Kuss, Steven Kruijswijk and Dylan van Baarle were the riders present in Troyes, where the controversial stage starts and finishes. They also make up five of the group who headed to the south of Spain to start their three-week camp.
The gravel stage has prompted discussion ever since it was revealed on the route for the 2024 edition, with Visma team boss Richard Plugge one of its biggest critics at the time.
"It's an incredibly challenging course from the first metre," Plugge said. "I think it is a bit unnecessary [to include gravel]. It increases the chance of bad luck. We want the fight to be as fair as possible. A ride like this, in my opinion, does not contribute to that."
However, Visma know they will need to ride it well as it will arguably be the most important non-mountain day at the Tour where the overall race won’t be won but could certainly be lost.
Jorgenson’s Strava upload revealed the Visma riders took in 115km of the gravel stage in close to three and a half hours, starting in Essoyes and heading north to Troyes.
The Tour stage will be 199km in length but the start of the Visma ride is close to the halfway mark and judging by the profile, should have included 12 of the 14 planned off-road sectors.
As top Classics riders, the likes of Jorgenson, Benoot and Van Baarle will be at home on the gravel but would likely be on protection duty for Vingegaard should the Dane be back in good shape.
Social media posts from Visma show there are more than five riders at the altitude camp but this doesn’t include Vingegaard and their other injured superstar Wout van Aert.
Van Aert has been making solid progress in his recovery and also returned to riding outside recently. He had to cancel a debut at the Giro due to his broken collarbone, ribs and sternum, but replacing that with the Tour is also yet to be confirmed.
Reports from Belgian media are confident he will take the start of his sixth Tour before heading to his big goal at the Paris Olympics, with a possible return to racing coming at the Tour of Norway from May 23-26.
