Jonas Vingegaard's Training Secrets: The Rise of the Efficiency Rider and His 7.6 W/kg

A World-Class Champion Who Started Out Packing Fish

In an era when professional cycling has become highly commercialized and increasingly youth-driven, the story of Jonas Vingegaard stands out as especially compelling. He grew up in a small town in Denmark, once worked at a fish-packing factory to help support his family, didn’t join the WorldTour until age 24, and won the Tour de France (2022, 2023) by age 26.

He isn’t a natural prodigy like Pogačar, nor an all-terrain monster like Remco. He is the ultimate representative of the “pure climbing endurance” archetype. If professional cycling has a rider running “efficiency mode” at full capacity, it’s Vingegaard.

The Numbers: Why Does He Win?

Key insight: Vingegaard’s absolute power output (in watts) is actually lower than Pogačar’s or Remco’s, but because he is lighter (60 kg vs 66 kg), his W/kg ratio gives him an edge on long climbs.

What Is W/kg?

Simply put — the power output per unit of body weight.

• Average recreational male cyclist: 2-3 W/kg
• Serious amateur strong rider: 4-5 W/kg
• National-level athlete: 5-5.5 W/kg
• WorldTour rider: 5.5-6.5 W/kg
• Top 10 at the Tour de France (20-minute climb): 6.5+ W/kg
• Vingegaard’s key climbing segments: 7.0-7.6 W/kg

Three Core Training Principles

Principle One: Low Body Weight, High Ratio (But Not Extreme)

Vingegaard’s 60 kilograms isn’t the result of “starving thin” — it’s a stable state of low body fat achieved through sustained high training volume combined with a strict carbohydrate-to-fat ratio. His body fat is estimated to sit between 5-7%, a common range for elite climbers.

What Taiwanese cyclists can learn: This isn’t about becoming 60 kg yourself, but understanding the physical fact that “for every 1 kg less body weight, you save 3-4 W of power required on a 10% gradient climb.” Being leaner is unquestionably an advantage on mountain roads.

Principle Two: Threshold Endurance First

Vingegaard’s coach Tim Heemskerk said something crucial in an interview:

“His greatest trait is that the power he can produce in training, he can also produce at the final moment of a race, on the last day of a three-week Grand Tour.”

Translated into training terminology, this is “Sustained Threshold Durability.”

His weekly training volume is estimated at 25-30 hours, a large portion of which is long rides in Zone 2 (aerobic / 70-80% max heart rate), combined with 2-3 threshold interval sessions per week (95-105% of FTP). He rarely does VO2max or anaerobic burst training, because his racing style doesn’t require it.

Principle Three: High-Altitude Training

Team Visma–Lease a Bike’s training bases include Mount Teide on Tenerife and the high mountains of Andorra. Vingegaard spends roughly 90-120 days a year training at altitudes above 2,000 meters.

Advantages of high-altitude training:

• Increases red blood cell oxygen-carrying capacity (natural EPO production)
• Adapts the body to low-oxygen environments, making high-mountain race stages feel easier
• Especially important for a pure climber like Vingegaard

Racing Style: Patience, Discipline, and Attacking Only at the Decisive Moment

Watch Vingegaard race and you’ll notice — 95% of the time he’s simply following wheels, sheltering from the wind, and waiting. He almost never launches meaningless attacks 50 km from the finish, because his raw explosiveness is relatively weaker than Pogačar’s.

But he waits — for:

• The final 3-5 km of the last climb
• The steepest sections with gradients above 8%
• The moment when his rivals have already spent everything pulling and have nothing left

— and only then unleashes that devastating attack. The 2022 Col du Granon and 2023 Col de la Loze are both classic examples.

The Philosophy of the “Efficiency Rider”

Vingegaard represents a counter-trend. In an era when professional cycling increasingly favors “long-range attacks, 10 km solo breakaways” (the Pogačar style), he proves that “waiting for the right moment and striking once” can still win.

Diet: Carbohydrates Are King

According to interviews with his coaching staff by GCN and The Times:

• On race days he consumes 100-120g of carbohydrates per hour (compared to 60-90g for a typical cyclist)
• His staple foods are rice, noodles, and oats, with very little red meat
• Breakfast is typically oats + honey + banana + coffee
• The night before a mountain stage, he deliberately does carb loading, eating up to 10-12 g/kg of body weight

What Can Taiwanese Cyclists Learn?

1. You don’t have to chase explosive high power: Vingegaard proves that “sustained output” matters more than “explosive output”
2. Zone 2 is the foundation: At least 8-10 hours of low-intensity aerobic riding per week is what allows you to sustain high-intensity intervals
3. Manage body weight rationally: Extreme weight loss damages power output. 60 kg is the optimal range for his height — it isn’t right for everyone
4. Learn to wait: In amateur races, too many riders empty the tank by the 20 km mark. Vingegaard shows you that “the final 3 km is what matters”

Conclusion: The Quiet King

Vingegaard may never be as dramatic as Pogačar or generate as many headlines as Remco, but he is the finest modern representative of “scientific training × the philosophy of endurance” in professional cycling today.

If you want to learn how to climb fast, watch Vingegaard. If you want to learn how to train sustainably, the answer is still Vingegaard.

Related Reading

• Jonas Vingegaard’s Climbing Strategy Explained: The Power and Pacing Artistry of Denmark’s Iron Wall
• Tadej Pogačar’s Training Philosophy Explained: The Slovenian Prodigy’s Aggressive Riding and Scientific Preparation
• Training Secrets of the World’s Top Riders: Power Data Revealed for Pogačar, Vingegaard, and van Aert
• Tadej Pogačar’s 2025 Season in Review: 50 Race Days, 20 Wins, and a Superhuman Year Surpassing 100 Career Victories