Vingegaard will not start UAE Tour
Jonas Vingegaard has withdrawn from Visma-Lease a Bike’s starting lineup for the UAE Tour (16-22 February), the second WorldTour stage race of the season where he was expected to face former winners Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) and Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), among other GC contendors.
The Dane was intending to start the race for the first time since 2021, where he beat eventual winner Tadej Pogačar to the stage 5 victory atop Jebel Jais, a few months before their rivalry began in earnest at that year’s Tour de France. However, Visma’s premier GC racer is reportedly still suffering the after effects of his storied training crash, complicated by his falling victim to one of the many early-/pre-season illnesses currently sweeping through the sport – Visma-Lease a Bike raced Friday’s Muscat Classic two riders down due to illness in the camp.
The team has yet to confirm its amended lineup set to race in the UAE. Meanwhile, Vingegaard’s season debut will have to wait until the Volta a Catalunya (23-29 March) – also on the startlist are Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz, racing as teammates for the first time, and UAE’s João Almeida – which the Dane races for the first time as he builds towards a maiden Giro d’Italia.
It’s official: Jonas Vingegaard will race the Giro d’Italia
Wout van Aert will return to Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo, while Matteo Jorgenson will target the hilly Ardennes Classics.