The feel-good story of 2026: four years after a career-threatening crash left him rebuilding his body piece by piece, the 34-year-old Dane won a Tirreno-Adriatico stage in March — his first victory in five years — then took his maiden Grand Tour stage at the Giro in May. The 2018 Amstel Gold champion arrives at the Tour as EF's wise old head, equal parts road captain and opportunist. Write him off at your peril.
Palmarès
- Amstel Gold Race winner (2018)
- Omloop Het Nieuwsblad winner (2018)
- World Championships road race bronze (2021)
- Tirreno-Adriatico stage winner (2026)
- Giro d'Italia stage 17 winner, Andalo (2026)
Cut-out factValgren's Giro stage win in May 2026 came a full eight years after his golden 2018 spring — and he greeted it in tears, saying simply, 'I think I deserve this.'
The squad
Riding the 2026 Tour with Richard Carapaz, Kasper Asgreen, Alex Baudin, Ben Healy, Sean Quinn, Georg Steinhauser, Max Walker — see the full EF Education–EasyPost team page.
Portrait: AI paper-collage render (gpt-image-2) after a reference photograph — source: Wikimedia Commons, author: bert de boer, license: CC BY 2.0.
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