Jonas Vingegaard triumphs in the Race to the Sun 

Jonas Vingegaard showed the world he was back to win after he secured an empathic victory in the week-long Paris-Nice on Sunday. 

Paris-Nice, one of cycling’s major one-week stage races, offered all the chaos for a particularly grueling battle: rain, heat, crashes and toe-to-toe sprints that at one point no one knew how the race would end up. 

But Team Visma – Lease a Bike’s Vingegaard managed to maneuver through all of that to register his first win of the new season.  

Redemption road for Vingegaard

The victory was a special one, considering Vingegaard crashed out at last year’s edition before eventually abandoning the fight.  

Coming into the race this year, however, it became clear that the Dane wasn’t going to use this opportunity to merely prepare for his upcoming Giro d’Italia-Tour de France ambition.  

After a not-so-stellar performance at the team time trial stage, he persevered through a cold and slippery stage four from Bourges to Uchon and outdueled rivals from Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe to cruise to a dominant win in an uphill battle.  

He had in his possession by then the yellow jersey, before winning again on stage five the next day to put more than two minutes to his closest GC rival at the time.  

No one came close to stealing the jersey right after that.  

By the time the last stage came rolling in on Sunday, Vingegaard rode the ‘Race to the Sun’ also securing both the King-of-the-Mountains and the points classification jerseys in a powerful display of dominance, control, and resilience.  

He adds his first victory in Paris-Nice to his winning collection of major one-week stage races, including the Criterium du Dauphine, which he won in 2023, and the Tirreno-Adriatico in 2024.  

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Tough but fun route 

His victory also reverses Visma’s challenging season starter, after several of its riders had to abandon races due to injury or illness.  

Vingegaard himself had to bow out of the UAE Tour last month following a crash in training and subsequent illness.  

The last stage on Sunday saw him attacking 21 kilometres from the finish line, looking to seal the deal with another stage win under his belt.  

But Team Bahrain-Victorious’ Lenny Martinez was up to the challenge and followed the Dane in what eventually became a head-to-head sprint that Martinez won.  

Nevertheless, Vingegaard was in high spirits after the race and said they had a lot of fun.  

“We raced full gas racing all day, and finally, I’m able to win Paris-Nice,” Vingegaard said after the finish in an interview from Cycling News. 

“It’s been a tough one for me, but I’m extremely happy to sit here in the yellow jersey today.” 

Overall, Red Bull’s Daniel Felipe Martínez finished second – 4 minutes and 23 seconds behind Vingegaard – while EF Education – EasyPost’s Georg Steinhauser completed the podium.  

The week-long race was also marred with crashes and abandonments, one of which had been Vingegaard’s closest competitor, Juan Ayuso from Lidl Trek.  

Ayuso had been wearing the yellow jersey until his crash on stage four, after which he was forced to pull out of the race.  

The Spaniard was later ruled out of any fracture or serious injury.  

Vingegaard-Pogačar duel on the cards again?   

The win also comes a week after his greatest rival, Tadej Pogačar, won Strade Bianche – and their dominance suggests another epic battle between them may be brewing on the horizon.  

Pogačar stormed to a bruising victory at the Tour de France in 2020 and 2021 and was on his way to consecutively dominate it before Vingegaard showed himself to the world and snatched the trophy from him in 2022 and 2023. 

The Slovenian managed to get the French title back in 2024 and 2025, with Vingegaard still right on his tail in second.  

Asked if his win at Paris-Nice was a message to Pogačar, Vingegaard coolly dismissed it as “just about racing”. 

“Trying to win the races that I’m doing. And this was my first race of the year. I’m just extremely happy with how everything went here.” 

He also said his shape for 2026 is “very, very good at the moment” but was adamant there was still a lot he can improve in for the upcoming races.  

Vingegaard now faces another challenge at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya on March 23, where he is set to compete with the likes of Remco Evenepoel, Florian Lipowitz and João Almeida.  

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