On the Champs-Elysées podium, her smile is sincere, but still shy. Jonas Vingegaard seems almost embarrassed to be there. However, as soon as he opens his mouth, his sharp canines are a reminder of how much of a predator the Dane has become. All dressed in yellow, Vingegaard has just won his first Tour de France on Sunday July 24, for his second participation. A major feat, just three years after turning professional.
The potential was there, but it remained below the iceberg’s waterline for a long time. Some, however, detected it before the others. “When he turned pro, I said he would be in the top 3 on a grand tour one day. But I never imagined that would happen yet.” These words are those of Christian Andersen, the sports director of the first team of the very fresh winner of the Tour de France.
If no one really knows Jonas Vingegaard, a few, very rare, have been able to tame the phenomenon. Andersen is one of those privileged people who were able to break the ice: “From the moment I spotted him, he’s always been the same”, he slips. Very secretive, the Scandinavian has nothing of a remote-controlled prodigy to the heights of cycling. Born in Hillerslev, a tiny town of 370 inhabitants in Jutland, a province in northwestern Denmark, the silent Vingegaard smelled the north wind before climbing the peaks of Europe.
The meeting with his mount took place fifteen years ago. In 2007, seeing that the offspring, “still the smallest and weakest of the bunch” according to their words, does not flourish in football, the Vingegaard parents decide to take him to see the Tour of Denmark, a real national mass. Love at first sight is immediate and his new passion will become his future.
Vingegaard joins the local club, improves and gradually opens his shell. At 20, an age when others are already rocking the boat with the pros, the Dane decides to join the second division team ColoQuick, one of the best incubators in the archipelago. In the middle of the project, a man: Christian Andersen. Then sports director of the team, he integrates it then chaperones it until his passage to the pros, in 2019. “He was very quiet, but he has matured, and he already had a real team spirit”, he explains. Reserved, extremely nervous and anxious by nature, Vingegaard went through all the stages before joining Jumbo-Visma.
Because unlike a Tadej Pogacar, irresistible among young people, the discreet Vingegaard took his time. “Jonas progressed step by step, even when he was with us. His progression is linear, he never stops moving forward”, says Andersen. After a second place in the Tour of China in 2016, he made a good start to the season in 2017, before being stopped short for a year. “He had an accident in Norway on the Tour des Fjords, where he broke his leg, and didn’t have the opportunity to show his potential”laments Andersen.
Almost a year in the closet, starting almost from scratch in his native Jutland, stuck by the waters and the winds. Vingegaard is chomping at the bit at a key time for its future. “It is an underestimated quality in a runner to be able to suffer young, to think that it is not serious”, remembers national coach Anders Lund, who followed him closely during his years with the hopes. To keep his head above water, Vingegaard even found a small job as a fishmonger, which he left the following summer, just six months before turning professional.
However, rehabilitation works wonderfully, and the year 2018 marks a click for the 22-year-old Dane. During a physical test carried out in the laboratory of the Denmark team, the experts are wide-eyed. “He showed spectacular numbers that had only been seen once or twice. Physically we realized he had a gift”remembers the coach, present during the tests. “His VO2 max was impressive, his ability to inject oxygen into the blood was spectacular. That’s one of the reasons why he’s so good in the passes”he says.
At that time, Andersen was approached by Grischa Niermann, current deputy sports director of Jumbo-Visma, because a name interested him. “We had discussions every week about the riders, but he was more interested in Julius Johansen, the reigning junior world champion,” Anderson says. No Vingegaard in the viewfinder, therefore. “Before 2018, Jumbo didn’t know who he was.”
It was during a training camp, where the Dane beat the record of Tejay van Garderen, a professional runner, at Coll de Rates, a famous summit south of Valencia (Spain), that his name finally caught on. “They finally spotted him when he broke the record. You have to break the ice so that we remember your name”, adds Andersen. Especially for a rider as unobtrusive as Vingegaard.
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“For Jonas, the most important thing was to join a team that had the same mentality as him. Jumbo-Visma was the only one that interested him. The salary didn’t matter: with the results, the rest would come”
Christian Andersen, former sporting director of Vingegaardat franceinfo: sport
Turned pro, Vingegaard is still as shy, and quickly loses his means when he is in a position to win. “From his first season, he wore the leader’s jersey during the last stage of the Tour of Poland. But he broke down nervously and lost everything”, explains Christian Andersen, who has remained very close to the Dane until today. Vingegaard collapses and goes from first to… 26th place overall.
To contain his anxieties, Jumbo-Visma integrates him into his mental preparation program. “He needs to feel confidence, from people around him”breathes Christian Andersen.“You have to give Jumbo-Visma a lot of credit. I’m not sure he would have been able to do the same if he had made another choice. That’s a key factor in his story.”argues Anders Lund.
In the shadow of Primoz Roglic, the shy Dane sees his life change during the 2020 Tour, in which he does not participate. The birth of his daughter Frida enlarges the precious cocoon he had already created with his companion Trine, nine years his senior. Father at 23, Vingegaard never cuts the cord again despite his constraints. “No matter how it goes in the race, he always has them as benchmarks. They motivate him enormously, they are so important”, says Andersen. To realize this, just see how Vingegaard throws himself on his phone to call his companion a handful of seconds after each arrival. “I owe them everything, they are my first supporters.”he says.
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The year 2021 is the year of explosion, with of course his second place on the Tour. But it was in March, during the Coppi and Bartali Week, a secondary race, that the real trigger took place. “He won two stages, and he was the leader of the team. He swept everyone away. After that, I understood that he was ready”, recalls Andersen. Vingegaard forces his nature, in his team but also in private. “Jonas tends to hide his emotions, we worked together to make him open up more and that it wasn’t always me who made the decisions”, says Trine. Until this victory on the Tour, where he disgusted Tadej Pogacar. “He has gained confidence. He has changed a lot, he has become a leader”insists Wout van Aert.
Expected next year
Mothered by Jumbo-Visma, nestled in a close-knit family and adored by the Danish people who were waiting for a new hero, Vingegaard is currently evolving in a cozy trajectory. “Jonas is a sensitive person. Jumbo-Visma did a remarkable job with him: they were able to build his resilience, to make him absorb this pressure that comes naturally with his results”points out Anders Lund.
Moments to cherish. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/dDs3eUYrpq
— Team Jumbo-Visma cycling (@JumboVismaRoad) July 23, 2022
But the blows of fate could rock his nascent throne. “If he shows up next year at the same level, I’m not sure he will win. He has to find areas for improvement, because the pressure will be even greater. He will have to develop his ability to manage crises in his career”points out Anders Lund. “If he doesn’t continue to progress like he is doing now, Pogacar or another runner will overtake him”adds the coach.
His first Tour in his pocket, Jonas Vingegaard is now a year old, in his new home close to his mentor Christian Andersen, 20 km south of his native village, to develop his potential and savor his new status. Forgotten the vomiting that assailed him before the races when he was young, now it is he who disgusts the competition.