Jonas Vingegaard kisses his wife and daughter after being crowned Tour de France champion. Photo: AFP
the Danish jonas vingegaard discovered cycling almost by chance. When he was about ten, his father Claus took him to see the start of a stage of the Tour of Denmark, which started from Hillerslev, his hometown, and he was dazzled. Vacation trips to France with his whole family every summer, just at the moment in which one of the most mythical road races in two-wheeled sport takes place, did nothing but fuel his passion and he began to imagine himself never be a protagonist on the routes of large bottle. That dream has finally come true. This Sunday, the leader of the Jumbo Visma team climbed to the top step of the podium installed in the center of the Champs Elysées in Paris and, with the Arc de Triomphe in the background, to receive the trophy of the new Tour de France champion.
The title – the first of his career in one of three Grand Tours – has written his name in the history books of world cycling, as Vingegaard became the second rider in his country to be crowned Tour champion and the first to do so. years. The pioneer and the last to join him had been Bjarne Riiswinner in 1996.
The victory was also a reward for a persistent and fighting runner, who it took him a while to find his “role” on top of the bike.
Jonas Vingegaard celebrates with his wife Trine and daughter in his arms. Photo: Tim de Waele / POOL / AFP.
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In his early years, when he was still a short and very thin boy, he suffered in competitions against bigger and stronger rivals than him, who had a huge advantage in sprinting on the flat and windy slopes of Hillerslev. His physique had already led him to abandon football, the first sport he tried, because they were so small that his teammates they didn’t pass the ball. But he refused to let it cost him even the chance to practice his new discipline.
Eventually he discovered that he was a natural climber, a rare talent for a cyclist from a country whose highest point is Mount Mollehoj, just 170 meters high. But for some reason, when the road was uphill, he pedaled at a higher level than the others.
He started competing at the age of 17 and joined the Danish amateur team in early 2015 CK stranger. But his good results and his mountain prowess immediately caught the attention of the professionals. In 2016 he signed with the Colo Quick, also resident in his country and with a continental license, and it didn’t take long to get people talking. In the tour of china of that season, his first race with that team, he finished second in the overall standings at just 19 years old.
Aware of his potential, the team executives made him an unusual recommendation. They told him to find a part-time job that required him to adhere to a daily routine and discipline. Jonas listened to the advice and began to divide his days in two: in the afternoon he trained on his bicycle and in the morning he worked in a fish shop in the port of Halsthom. The new Tour champion entered at 6, left at 12 and took care of cleaning, cutting and packaging the fish, which was then exported.
For two years he followed that routine, despite having no financial needs and could only focus on sports. But he realized that this work was forging his character.
“Having to train after a full day of work in the factory has helped me a lot. It’s very different to have the whole day to dedicate to cycling than to get up early, go to work and then train for four hours. It has changed the way I do myself. I approach sport, it made me grow a lot “Vinggaard said.
In the summer of 2018, however, he took a break to go with the ColoQuick to a retreat in Calpe, Spain. That trip changed his life too. In the Spanish hills, the Dane has beaten the times of many professionals with far more experience than him and has further honed his natural talent as a climber.
His name then appeared on the radar of the View Jumbowho were trying to put together a strong line-up to face the 2019 season. And the Dutch team, one of the most powerful in the UCI World Tourthe most important circuit of road cycling, has decided to bet on it.
Vingegaard was quick to add his first good results. In the tour of Poland in 2019, he won a stage – the sixth – and on the last day he finished as the leader of the general classification, even if he did not manage to “finish” the victory and even came out of the top 10. Shortly after he finished second in the tour of Denmark. And in 2020, she performed the Return to Spainhis first big test, in which he finished 46th.
A little less than a year later, everyone was talking about him. Is that Jonas was the big revelation of the Tour de France last year, in which she had more prominence than expected. The leader of his team, the Slovenian primoz roglic, one of the great candidates for the title, has decided to abandon the test before the ninth stage, after having suffered several falls and some serious injuries. And Vingegaard comes forward, who until then had only competed as an “assistant” to the big names in his formations.
A postcard of Vingegaard’s participation in 2021: arriving behind the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar. A year later, the posts were reversed. Photo: AP / Christophe Ena.
He was twice second in the top finish lines, behind the final mountain winner, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacarand was third in both time trials, securing second place overall, becoming only the second Danish driver to reach a Tour podium after Riis.
This year, after being champion of the Coppi / Bartali Week is in the Drôme Classic; and win the eighth stage of the Criterium du Dauphine– arrived on the Grand Tour of France as the leader of a mighty Jumbo. He has won two stages. On 11, 13 July, in the Alps, finishing at the Col du Granon, which allowed him to reach the top of the general classification for the first time. And on the 18th, the most important contest in the Pyrenees, in which on Thursday he held a masterful performance that allowed him to put an end to the resistance of Pogacar, his great threat, and to practically secure victory, which he finished sealing this Sunday to make history. .
What will become of Vingegaard after this victory? “I don’t know if things will change now or later. We will have to see it … I know next week will be madness. Going up to the balcony of the city hall (in Copenhagen), Wednesday will be very strong. First I want to celebrate this victory. Of course I want to come back in the Tour to win another one. But I didn’t aim to win five Tour de France or anything like that. I just want to come back and win, “he confessed.
Luciana Aranguiz
Source: Clarin
