Visma-Lease a Bike have confirmed that 2024 Tour de France runner-up Jonas Vingegaard will return to racing at the Clásica San Sebastian (August 10) and the Tour de Pologne (August 12-19) in August.
After finishing second in the 2024 Tour de France behind Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Vingegaard ruled out a return to the Vuelta a España, where he finished second overall in 2023, later this summer.
But three days after the Tour ended, the Tour de Pologne organisers already announced that Vingegaard would be returning to the race where he took a breakthrough first pro victory in its toughest stage through the mountains of southern Poland, back in 2019.
On Friday, Visma-Lease a Bike confirmed that the Clásica San Sebastian had been to the Dane’s summer race schedule. His teammates for the ultra-hilly Classic will include Vuelta a Burgos leader and 2023 Vuelta a España champion Sepp Kuss and the former Giro d’Italia podium finisher Wilco Kelderman.
Also included for Visma-Lease A Bike in the Basque Classic is up-and-coming British pro, Thomas Gloag, who only recently completed a prolonged spell away from racing, recovering from injuries incurred in 2023, and whose last event last year was, as it happens, the Clásica San Sebastian.
“I was very tired after the Tour. For five days, I did absolutely nothing. I recharged my batteries and then started training again. Everything went well. I currently feel fresh and am ready to take on the next two races," Vingegaard explained in a statement released by his team.
"The race in San Sebastián and the Tour de Pologne are two beautiful races. Moreover, I have a special bond with Poland. It was where I achieved my first victory in the WorldTour.”
"It feels like I still have something to prove there. In 2019, I won the hardest stage and I then started the next day in the leader’s jersey, but I couldn’t secure the overall victory.
"I am determined to win this year, but of course, the competition is not to be underestimated."
While the team confirmed that they will be going for the overall in Pologne with Vingegaard - “He has unfinished business there” was how his team director Maerten Wynants put it - Visma-Lease a Bike will also be looking out for their chances in the sprints in the week-long event with Olav Kooij. The young Dutch fastman took his first WorldTour win in Pologne back in 2022.
First, though, Vingegaard will be racing in the Basque Country for the first time since his terrible crash, sparking major injuries, on the Alto de Oleata during the Itzulia this April.
In the umpteenth revision to the route for Saturday’s Clásica, the 237km race will likely be decided by a late trio of climbs, the well-known Jaizkebel near the French border, the relentlessly hard cat 1 Erlaitz and a new, shorter, but even tougher climb, the Pilotegi, with slopes of up to 27%, just eight kilometres from the line.
"It will be special to return to the Basque Country after everything that happened a few months ago,” Vingegaard, whose sole participation in the Clásica came in 2021, when he finished eighth.
“Fortunately, I also have many good memories of that region, so I am really looking forward to racing there again."
