Denmark’s national coach Michael Mørkøv had one line for the theory his compatriot Brian Holm had aired earlier in the week.
“No, that is not a feeling I have. Jonas has indicated to me that he really wants to be part of the Danish national team,” Mørkøv said, as reported by Domestique Cycling.
Holm had put it very differently on the Café Eddy podcast: that Vingegaard would rather have Sunday off than pull on the rainbow jersey.
“My theory is, that Jonas doesn’t even want to be world champion,” Holm said on the show.
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“If they told him: You’ll get it on Sunday, then he’d rather be free.”
Holm painted his fellow Dane as temperamentally at odds with the theater of the jersey.
“Vingegaard thinks differently. The others dream about riding in the Danish flag. Mads Pedersen is the best example. He loves being on, talking and being the center. Vingegaard is completely different. He’d rather get away from it.”
Injured, not indifferent
The bigger reason Vingegaard is not in Montreal has little to do with Holm’s argument. He crashed at the 2026 Tour de France on 19 July, broke his collarbone and had surgery. Team Visma | Lease a Bike ruled him out for the rest of the season not long after.
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Mørkøv had already framed the absence around fatigue and injury weeks before Holm’s remarks.
“I had a good conversation with Jonas, and he said he would like to be ready to compete for the national team at the World Championships. But he’s still struggling with the injury he sustained during the Tour,” Mørkøv told IDL ProCycling in mid-August.
On the weekend he added workload to the picture, grouping Vingegaard with Mattias Skjelmose, another Danish rider who withdrew from the road race after the Vuelta a España.
“Jonas is in a way a bit of a special case, a bit like Skjelmose. These are riders who sacrifice an incredible amount,” Mørkøv said.
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“It has some costs if you ride two Grand Tours. Jonas had expressed that he was motivated and interested in riding the Worlds.”
Sunday in Montreal, without either Tour rival
The elite men’s road race in Montreal starts on Sunday without both of the sport’s biggest Grand Tour names. Reigning world champion Tadej Pogačar is also absent after a crash-induced injury, leaving the race wide open.
Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel lines up on the back of a fourth consecutive time trial world title on 20 September, taken in 44:53 and 57 seconds clear of Filippo Ganna, drawing him level with Fabian Cancellara and Tony Martin on four elite men’s time trial world titles.
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