Double Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) has stated that he thinks skilled biking is simply too harmful for him to permit his youngsters to take part in it, have been they to ask if they may observe in his wheeltracks.
Vingegaard suffered life-threatening accidents in a mass crash final 12 months within the Itzulia Basque Nation, by which quite a few riders have been harm.
In a prolonged interview in the course of the Volta ao Algarve with Nieuwsblad, Vingegaard stated that organisers had a job to play in making the game safer, in addition to the UCI.
However he additionally stated that some riders have been partly chargeable for the game having its dangers, arguing that some riders “race as if there aren’t any brakes on a motorcycle.”
Requested by Nieuwsblad if he would let his two youngsters race after they have been older, Vingegaard answered: “To be sincere, if my daughter or son asks that query – ‘daddy, can we race?’ – the reply is ‘no’. The best way the game is now… It’s simply too harmful.”
Presently participating in Paris-Good, in the course of the interview Vingegaard additionally mentioned his Itzulia crash on a sweeping, quick downhill part of street working via dense woodland, explaining that in his opinion the organisers had made an error by “sending us down a street with tree roots beneath it”.
Nonetheless, he stated that different components involving the riders additionally made racing extra harmful too.
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“We riders additionally combat and race at occasions when it isn’t actually needed. That was additionally noticeable within the Algarve: typically we combat for place for a bend that goes nowhere. Typically there may be too little respect.”
Vingegaard additionally identified that riders battling for place might have been chargeable for the horrible crash suffered by teammate Wout van Aert final 12 months in Dwars door Vlaanderen. He concluded: “Too many riders race as if there aren’t any brakes on a motorcycle.”
“Usually, I might say that everybody in biking wants to grasp the size of the protection downside. That’s nonetheless not the case sufficient. And everybody has a duty: the riders themselves, the organisers and the UCI.”
This isn’t the primary time Vingegaard has mentioned race security this season in public. On the Volta ao Algarve, after quite a few riders went off target late on stage 1, the subsequent day at first Vingegaard referred to as on the UCI to take motion.
“One thing like this should not occur in biking, I feel the organisers ought to take this severely and the UCI as nicely,” Vingegaard stated.
“It wasn’t actually clear the place we needed to go. In my view, in a dash we’ve got to have it clear the place we’ve got to go and the place we should always not go.”
Within the wide-ranging interview, Vingegaard additionally mentioned how he had solely begun succeeding at a comparatively late age within the sport, how Wout van Aert was the “greatest helper you would have in a race,” and his excessive anxiousness as a younger novice and once more as a younger professional, which brought about him to vomit at occasions from his nervousness throughout races themselves.
He additionally rejected the concept his racing type was under no circumstances spontaneous, pointing to a stage within the Tour de France in 2023 the place Visma modified their technique mid-race as a result of they intuited – accurately – that arch-rival Tadej Pogačar (UAE Crew Emirates-XRG) had been weak to assault.
“Tadej has his type, I’ve mine. However typically it bothers me a bit after we are portrayed as ‘calculated’,” he stated.
“Typically we actually do issues on instinct. An instance: on the stage to Marie Blanc in 2023 within the Tour we stated prematurely that we would definitely not assault. However in the long run we felt that Pogačar was at his restrict and we modified every part.”
Methods for Paris-Good
In a separate interview with one other Belgian newspaper, Het Laatste Nieuws,, Vingegaard mentioned his Paris-Good participation and confirmed that he was attempting to win as many WorldTour week-long stage races as potential. The Dane’s solely earlier participation in Paris-Good, in 2023, resulted in a 3rd place general behind Tadej Pogačar and David Gaudu.
“That is why I am driving the Volta a Catalunya as a substitute of the Tour of the Basque Nation,” Vingegaard defined. “Profitable all of them is sort of not possible, however I need to attempt to acquire as many as I can.”
Vingegaard additionally informed the newspaper that there was no challenge with Matteo Jorgenson, his teammate, additionally desirous to win Paris-Good and added that though he has not been at altitude but and was not in high type, after an general win within the Volta ao Algarve, he hoped to take “an additional step” within the Course au Soleil.
“You win as a staff. We have now already confirmed that we can be at our greatest with a number of leaders at first.”
“We [Vingegaard and Jorgenson] have a superb relationship. I’m not a egocentric man who solely thinks of himself. If he will get right into a extra promising place than me, I’ll gladly sacrifice myself;” he defined.
“I don’t see Matteo as a rival, however as an ally. Within the Algarve I used to be a bit remoted, which made it tough at occasions. With an additional asset that modifications. Now we will make issues harder for the opposition.”
