tour reporter
The Dane Jonas Vingegaard is about to win the overall Tour de France. He came to cycling because, as a small child, he could never get the ball in football.
A good hour after the triumph was finally certain, which only has to be formally sealed on Sunday (07/24/22) in Paris Jonas Vingegaard a shabby corrugated iron gymnasium in gramat. The big feelings at the finish of the 20th stage in Rocamadour, the tears of his partner Trine, the kiss for his daughter Frieda, the sobs of his teammate Wout van Aertthe heartfelt hugs of the other team members – all this was far away in this mundane environment.
Big fuss about the family man
Vingegaard, the designated winner of the Tour de France 2022, so now sat there in that dreary place they had taken him to after the stage 20 time trial and should explain himself. “I am a family man, I like to spend my time with my girlfriend and my daughter. They are the most important things to me”said Vingegaard so. And all further attempts to find out a little more failed.
His teammate van Aertwho had won the time trial because Vingegaard grinned and let his ride coast to a halt in the last 300 meters, also had no further facets to contribute. “He is very grateful, down to earth”, said the Belgian. That’s the way it is: The man who takes home the yellow jersey this year is not a dazzling star. But that calm is likely to be over from now given the excitement his triumph in Denmark sparked.
“It’s gonna be crazy”, Vingegaard suspects. The question will be how this slight man will cope with all the hype. Vingegaard always seems a bit sickly, almost fragile. He is pale, his eyes are deep in their sockets and two deep lines dig in around his mouth when he speaks or smiles.
Successful without the others
You can imagine what it was like back then on the football field in the small village Hillerslev in northern Denmark when the other boys didn’t pass the ball to the small Jonas because he wasn’t robust enough to claim it. On the other hand, on the bicycle he was not dependent on the others.
With cycling came Jonas Vingegaard 2007 first contact. At that time, the Tour of Denmark stopped in Thisted not far from his hometown. In a test run by the local cycling club, children had one minute to get as far as possible. Vingegaard got the furthest – it was his first success on the bike.
However, it was far from foreseeable that the small boy would one day become the winner of the world’s largest bicycle race. He wasn’t very successful in his youth. “He hit puberty very late, when he was over 17, and before that he never won”his father Claus told the French sports newspaper L’ Equipe told. The local cycling club was afraid he might fly away if the wind on the North Sea blew too hard. “It was very difficult for him, but he persevered. He really enjoyed cycling.”
Shifts in the fish factory
This toughness, the will to persevere, is probably the most important character trait Vingegaard brings. And which has now also helped him to the greatest victory possible in cycling. Before Vingegaard was signed by Team Jumbo-Visma, he drove for the Continental Team ColoQuick. At the time, he also worked in a fish factory and put the catch on ice. He completed his training after the shift, which started at six in the morning and ended at noon.
His current team boss Merijn Zeeman believes this experience will stand him in good stead now as a professional cyclist, knowing the rigors of everyday working life. To captain the team is Vingegaard However, it only became so through the misadventures of Primoz Roglic. The Slovenian, from whom his compatriot Tadej Pogacar snatched the tour victory at the last moment in 2020, fell out of the race in the first week last year. After that it was Vingegaardwho kept up at least a bit with Pogacar in the mountains and ended up second overall on the podium in Paris.
From bundle of nerves to leader
At that time, the Dane, who had inadvertently taken center stage, was only told to see what was going on so as not to put him under pressure. Then Vingegaard was also considered a bundle of nerves. His girlfriend helped him get over his nervousness by forcing him to face situations he otherwise preferred to avoid. “I’ve become more confident, grown up”said Vingegaard. When the Dane joined the team in 2019, he was a completely different driver, confirmed van Aert: “Now he’s a lot more confident, a real one leader.”
Officially, however, Vingegaard only started the tour as co-captain next to Roglic. Accompanied by the great expectations of his compatriots, who made him present at the team presentation Grand Depart Thousands of people in Copenhagen celebrated with chants and moved them to tears.
When Roglic fell again over the cobbles on Stage 5, dislocating his shoulder and losing time, Vingegaard rose to become the sole captain of the Jumbo Visma squad. He too was panicking that day when a defect stopped him, but thanks to van Aert’s pace work the loss of time to Tadej Pogacar, winner of the previous two years, was limited.
“That was the only day things didn’t go perfectly for us”said Vingegaard. After that, however, Jumbo-Visma began to take complete control of the Tour de France. The team moved Vinegaard to the 11th stage Col du Granon in position to shake off Pogacar with an aggressive tactic. And also in the Pyrenees, it was the tactical performance of his team that prepared him for the stage win in Hautacam.
The 25-year-old from Denmark was clearly the strongest rider in the high mountains this year. In his youth he often spent vacations with his family in the Alps, where he climbed the famous passes in the Alps. But of course such explanations in cycling alone will not be enough. Like all Tour winners in recent years, Vingegaard will have to live with distrust of his performance on the bike.
“You can trust us”
The absolute dominance of his team, which will win not only the yellow jersey, but also the green jersey of the sprinter with the best points and the mountain jersey with dots, and has already won six stages before the final stage in Paris, feeds this distrust. “We are absolutely clean, nobody takes anything illegal with us”assured Vingegaard, referring to the preparations planned down to the last detail and the team’s hard work. “That’s why you can trust us.”
Trust has often been abused in cycling. But one way or the other, the scrawny boy of yore has now reached the pinnacle of cycling. “I knew that one day I could win the Tour de France”said Vingegaard before he left the dreary corrugated iron hall in Gramat in the direction of Paris. “But to experience it now is incredible.”