'I've spent the last two years fighting my way back' – are we now seeing a Jonas Vingegaard who can take on Tadej Pogačar again?

Volta a Catalunya winner Jonas Vingegaard has spent two years fighting to regain his pre-crash form – and now might be even better than before. That is the view of Danish former pro and cycling pundit Nicki Sørensen, who was speaking after the Vingegaard's impressive ride to GC victory in the Spanish stage race last week.

Vingegaard echoed Sørensen's sentiments when they were put to him, saying he felt as though he'd spent two years fighting – without necessarily even knowing it.

"I feel like I've spent the last two years fighting my way back to that level – and in some way the Jonas I was before my crash," he told Danish outlet TV2. "I feel, without consciously knowing it, that it has had a greater influence than I thought."

The double Tour de France winner was involved in a brutal pile-up in the 2024 edition of Itzulia Basque Country. He suffered a punctured lung and broke a collarbone and several ribs. So bad were his injuries that the Dane said afterwards that he thought he was going to die. Incredibly, he managed to return to the Tour de France that year and finish second, but now both Vingegaard and Sørensen are convinced the effects were more lasting than they'd initially supposed.

"After the crash [he] had in the Basque Country... I don't think we saw the same Vingegaard until last year," said TV2 expert Sørensen, a former pro with CSC-Tiscali, among others. "He was missing something, and I don't know what it was. But it wasn't a Vingegaard at the same level as before the crash. But now he's maybe back there – or even better.

Vingegaard won back-to-back stages, both summit finishes, and the general classification in the seven-day race around northern Spain. In doing so he bested a host of high-finishing riders from last year's Tour de France, including Oscar Onley (Ineos Grenadiers), Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), Ben O'Connor (Jayco-AlUla) and Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) – it was no soft victory.

Lipowitz's team-mate Remco Evenepoel, who placed fifth, was also among those beaten by Vingegaard, but the Belgian's stage three crash left him below par.

It all bodes well for Vingegaard as he approaches his first big target of the season – the Giro d'Italia, which he is riding for the first time. He will then go on to ride the Tour de France in July, where he will take on Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who is likely to present him with a significantly bigger challenge than any one he met last week.