Jonas Vingegaard lines up on Sunday as one of the favorites for the European Championships in France. The fact that the Dane is traveling to the Ardèche is notable in itself, as he has hardly participated in one-day races in recent years. Throughout his career, the Visma | Lease a Bike climber has won only one one-day race.
Since turning professional in 2019, Vingegaard has competed in a total of 25 one-day races. By comparison, his perennial rival Tadej Pogacar has started 84 after the same number of pro years. In the early years of his pro career, Vingegaard still regularly raced classics, but in recent seasons the number has drastically decreased. Since the 2022 Giro di Lombardia, he has ridden only one one-day race. In 2023, Vingegaard did not start a single one-day race, and in 2025 the EC will be his first and only one-day race of the season.
Early years
In his debut year at (then) Jumbo-Visma, Vingegaard mainly focused on stage races, but still had six one-day races on his schedule. He raced the Danish time trial championship (22nd) and road race (26th), the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec (96th) and Montréal (84th), the Giro dell'Emilia (DNF), and the Gran Premio Bruno Beghelli (DNF). No standout results there.
Vingegaard signs the start list at the GP de Québec 2019 - photo: Cor Vos
Even in the corona year 2020, this remained the case. Vingegaard participated five times in a one-day race: Gran Premio Piemonte (56th), Giro di Lombardia (DNF), Danish road championship (31st), La Flèche Wallonne (71st), and Liège–Bastogne–Liège (84th). His then teammate Primoz Roglic, however, won that edition of LBL.
Victory in the Faun-Ardèche
A year later, in 2021, Vingegaard finished much closer in Liège–Bastogne–Liège with 28th place. The week before, he placed 114th in the Amstel Gold Race and 83rd in La Flèche Wallonne. Shortly after the Tour de France—where he surprisingly finished second—he secured eighth place in the Clásica San Sebastián, which remains his best result in a WorldTour classic to date. In the autumn, he recorded the following results: 61st in the Bretagne Classic, 12th in the Giro dell'Emilia, and 14th in the Giro di Lombardia, his best result in a Monument.
We are now in the strongest period of Vingegaard's classics career so far, as in spring 2022 he triumphed the day after finishing 33rd in the Faun-Ardèche Classic at the Drôme Classic (1.Pro). This remains his only victory in a one-day race. In the following La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, he recorded DNFs. Only at the end of the year did another classic follow with the Giro di Lombardia. After finishing 14th in 2021, he took 16th in 2022. On both occasions, the victory went to Tadej Pogacar.
Vingegaard celebrating in the Drôme Classic - photo: Cor Vos
Since that Giro di Lombardia, Vingegaard has competed in only one one-day race. The Dane started as a top favorite in the 2024 Clásica San Sebastián but had to drop early and did not finish in the race won by Marc Hirschi. The Visma | Lease a Bike leader had just completed the Tour de France and a long rehabilitation following his severe crash in the Tour of the Basque Country.
Now, the EC marks his second one-day race in three years. It is also his first championship (at the professional level) with the Danish national team. Vingegaard already has good memories of the region. After all, it was in this area that he claimed his only one-day race victory in 2022. The 2022 Drôme Classic featured different climbs than the 2025 EC, but the start and finish of the French spring race were in Étoile-sur-Rhône, which is less than fifteen kilometers from Guilherand-Granges—where the EC finishes on Sunday.
Vingegaard searching for the right formula to perform
Although he has won only one one-day race in his career, Vingegaard does have ambitions in this area. "I dream of performing well in one-day races," he said after his overall victory in the recent Vuelta a España in an interview with WielerFlits. "The reason I have ridden few one-day races in recent years is that I haven't really figured out how to perform there. The only time I won a one-day race was the day after another one-day race. So yes, you couldn't really call that a one-day race."
"I find it difficult to figure out what I should do the day before a one-day race, to discover how I need to be good in a one-day race. I know riders who train for three hours the day prior and then almost treat it like a race. Whether that’s the recipe, I don’t know, but it’s something I could try."
