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 video posted by his team:, external “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.