'It is better to fully recover' – Jonas Vingegaard delays season start after crash and illness

Jonas Vingegaard will not make his season debut at this month’s UAE Tour as planned, choosing instead to recover after crashing during training and subsequently falling ill.

The two-time Tour de France winner fell off his bike last week after being followed by an amateur cyclist on a descent near Malaga, Spain.

Vingegaard was due to open his 2026 season at the UAE Tour on 16 February, but now may not race until his next confirmed event: the Volta a Catalunya at the end of March.

“I was really looking forward to returning to the UAE Tour and am therefore disappointed that we have had to make this decision,” the Dane said in a statement shared by his team, Visma-Lease a Bike.

“However, the combination of the crash and subsequent illness made it necessary. It is better to fully recover first so that I can then focus on my next goals.”

Following his crash last week, Visma-Lease a Bike released a statement saying Vingegaard was “okay” and did not sustain any “serious injuries”.

The team also urged restraint from the public towards their riders. “For both your own and others’ wellbeing, please allow riders to train and give them as much space and peace as possible,” the statement read.

Vingegaard, who won the Tour de France in 2022 and 2023, earned his first Vuelta a España title last year, and is now targeting the Grand Tour treble in the Giro d’Italia, which he will ride for the first time this spring.

After his UAE Tour withdrawal, the Giro and the Volta a Catalunya are the only races on his calendar before July’s Tour de France.

“Having the Tour de France in mind, if you do too much in the spring, you will pay for it in the Tour,” the Dane told Wielerflits last month. “After the Tour, we’re going to see where I am, how I feel, and then we decide if that’s season [finished] or if we plan some more [races].”