After a broken collarbone ends his Tour de France, what next for Jonas Vingegaard?

“We truly believe we can do something special at this race,” said a senior member of Visma-Lease a Bike’s staff on the morning of the Tour de France’s opening team time trial in Barcelona. “Honestly, there is something spectacular planned for Jonas in the third week.”

The two-time Tour winner never got that chance. Vingegaard’s race ended in the final 20km of stage 15 after suffering a broken collarbone. The final images of his participation in the race were of the Dane sitting on the tarmac cradling his arm, before being led, pale-faced, off the course.

By that point, almost five minutes down on yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar, the Tour may already have been done — save for an incomprehensible effort over Alpe d’Huez, or misfortune to Pogacar himself.

But it is inarguable that the Tour is a poorer race without Vingegaard having the opportunity to try — the man whose rivalry with Pogačar will define this era of cycling, another of the aliens that wears a human face.

“I just talked to my family a little bit,” Vingegaard told Danish broadcaster TV2 after crashing. “That was the most important thing for me. We’ve come up with a plan for what’s going to happen now, and I’ve talked to some of the team. It’s no use hanging your head. It just makes it worse.”

🎙️ Are you in pain, or how are you feeling?
🗣️ Jonas Vingegaard: “Yes, a little, I mean I can definitely feel it. I’ve had some painkillers, so they have given me something for the pain, but it’s actually okay.” [TV 2 Sport] pic.twitter.com/Zh1Z0Rumlj

— #TeamVingegaard (@vingeupdates) July 19, 2026

His body language was that of an exhausted man. As he spoke outside, hours before returning home to Denmark, it is fair to ask when he will be coming back to the Tour de France.

Now, Vingegaard is still the second-best climber in the world — the reigning champion of both the Vuelta a España and Giro d’Italia — but the 29-year-old has always been open about the impact of cycling on his wider life. This is an all-consuming sport; Vingegaard often swims to escape the mouth of the whale.

Speaking to TV2 on the race’s first rest day, he revealed that he had already considered retirement last year — mentioning his weight, the time spent training, the toll on his body. Visma are known as one of the more rigid teams in the peloton in terms of flexibility within a riders’ training structure.

“I said last year that if this was how it was going to be, I couldn’t be in it anymore,“ Vingegaard told them. I also think the team realised that this was how it was, and they could also tell from me that I wasn’t happy last year. They accepted that we had to change something, and we did.”

During the 2025 Tour, Vingegaard’s wife Trine made a similar point: that his work was “squeezing the lemon too much” and that “he needs to recharge to perform at his best.”

Strong and sincere words from Tadej for Jonas, forced to abandon. 💛

Au-delà de la rivalité, Tadej rend hommage à Jonas après son abandon. 🤝#TDF2026 pic.twitter.com/KuDXjLZiFQ

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 19, 2026

For all the riches Vingegaard has earned, this perspective is understandable, especially in the context of the horrific crash he suffered at the 2024 Basque Itzulia, in which he punctured both lungs and broke several ribs. After taking yellow on this Tour’s opening day, he said it “will always be part of my book, me lying there on the ground, believing that I’m going to die”.

A broken collarbone is a less serious injury, but every rider has their limit. This is the third successive Tour that Pogačar has dominated, with Vingegaard further away than ever over the past two weeks. His final completed day’s racing, stage 14, ended with Isaac del Toro and Paul Seixas outsprinting him for second and third. If not a sign that the future has already arrived, it is a sign that it is coming up fast.

Vingegaard has little unfinished business. He has won every major stage-racing prize in the sport, and appears to hold scant interest in one-day races. It is difficult, right now, to see him winning another Tour de France while Pogačar, the younger man at 27, remains in such imperious form. A window appears to be closing.

At Visma, meanwhile, there is internal turmoil for the first time. Several key figures have left — such as head of racing Grischa Niermann, sporting director Merijn Zeeman, and Vingegaard’s long-time coach Tim Heemskerk, who said he was “struggling to continue applying creativity and passion.” They are still lacking a title sponsor for next season, though there are no ongoing financial concerns.

These are factors why it would not be a total surprise if Vingegaard walked away — but the sport would be far sadder for it. It is not that he should; it is fearing that he will. Vingegaard is extremely unlikely to bow out like Chris Froome, who confirmed his retirement two days before the start of the Tour, aged 41, after struggling at Israel-Premier Tech for the past five years.

Instead, it is far easier to see him through the lens of riders such as Tom Dumoulin and Simon Yates, retired at 31 and 33 respectively, who both had Visma-Lease a Bike as their final team.

But another possibility is making a change. There has been chatter in the Tour paddock about a mega-offer from Scandinavian team Uno-X Mobility — who have enjoyed an excellent Tour having claimed both a stage win through Søren Wærenskjold and held yellow with Torstein Træen, who want to make the Dane the face of their project — potentially providing more time in Denmark. Vingegaard is a rare professional cyclist who still trains and resides where he grew up, rather than the popular enclaves of Girona, Monaco, and Andorra.

Vingegaard is a considered man, not known to rush into decisions. A broken collarbone, in modern cycling, is an injury that can be returned from in six weeks, unhurriedly, and especially when operated on as the Dane’s has been.

His program for the rest of the season will be revealing — whether he targets some of the autumn’s key one-day races, such as a hilly world championships course in Montreal, or the Italian Monument Il Lombardia, or if this is his season over. The latter will only raise speculation.

The hope, as a rider under contract, and still of supreme ability — still generating the second-best climbing numbers in the history of the sport — is that he continues. After all, Vingegaard is more invested in results than he often lets on.

“From afar, you wouldn’t say that he cares about all the victories he’s won,” his friend Nathan Van Hooydonck, a former Visma rider who still works for the team’s commercial department, told The Athletic a few days before the crash. “But he can name all 50 of them.”

His team, and others, should pray this setback is little more than a footnote, rather than a new chapter of Vingegaard’s book. For the first time since achieving his five successive Tour podiums, Vingegaard stands at a crossroads. How much does he want to continue chasing?