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Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard says he hopes to regain enough fitness to attempt to win the title for a third successive year.

The 27-year-old Dane was injured in a freak crash during a race in northern Spain, which left him with a broken collarbone and ribs, and a collapsed lung.

"I feel good and I'm improving day by day," he said. "Of course I hope to be there at start of Tour de France, but we don't know exactly how my shape and recovery will go."

The Tour begins in the Italian city of Florence, on 29 June.

Vingegaard, who also won the Tour in 2022 - deposing Slovenia's 2020 and 2021 winner Tadej Pogacar - added in a "This is first time back on the bike for me riding outside.

"It's really nice to finally be able to ride like normal and to ride on the road - I'm really looking forward to taking the next steps."

Visma-Lease a Bike's Vingegaard had been showing dominant form in the early season before the crash on a fast and twisty descent during the Itzulia Basque Country stage race - a serious accident which saw several riders injured, including two of the sport's best in Primoz Roglic of Slovenia and Belgium's Remco Evenepoel.

Vingegaard, along with Pogacar of UAE-Team Emirates, are considered to be a level above all other riders in the sport, and the pair were preparing for a third mouth-watering battle in the three-week Grand Tour during July.

Vingegaard's crash had raised the chances of Pogacar achieving a historic double of winning the Giro d'Italia and Tour in the same year - last achieved by Italy's legendary rider Marco Pantani in 1998.

Pogacar is currently leading the Giro, ahead of Britain's Geraint Thomas of Ineos Grenadiers.

Vingegaard's crash caused many in the sport to call for change, including Ineos co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who wrote an open letter to the sport's world governing body the UCI following several high-profile incidents on the road in 2024.

Last year, Swiss Gino Mader was killed following a crash while descending at high speed during his home race.