In Paris, the city of light, the blue of the French team usually dominates, which on Saturday qualified for the semifinal of the Women's Euro Cup, and the blue of the galactic PSG tries to reign. Except for the Sunday when the Tour ends, where everything turns yellow. Not this time. The red of the Danish flag stole the spotlight on the Champs-Élysées, where the Belgian Philipsen (Alpecin) – already the winner in Carcassone – won, defeating Groenewegen and Kristoff.
In the final stretch there were more than a hundred flags hanging on the fences of the final circuit in honor of Jonas Vingegaard, waiting to see the winner of the Tour climb to the top of the podium. The Dane arrived surrounded by his teammates (also Van Aert, who did not contest the stage) from Jumbo.
He is the second cyclist in the country to achieve it and he does so 26 years after his compatriot Bjarne Riis. His physiques have nothing to do with it. Indeed, Vingegaard's physiognomy is rare in Danish cycling. Just look at the weight and height of Danish riders who have been on the Tour. Asgreen and Bjerg are over 1.90 meters tall. Honoré and Morkov exceed 1.80. Juul-Jensen and Pedersen are above 70 kilos. Nielsen cut almost. Kron, who was the next ranked Dane, 68th out of 135, remains at 65. All far from the 60 kg and 1.75 of the new champion.
“When you race in Denmark it is not easy to stand out if you are a pure climber. It is not easy being a small runner in such a flat country. I know it well”, Michael Rasmussen explains to La Vanguardia. He, who was a born climber and won the king of the mountain jersey twice (2005 and 2006), was forced to abandon the 2007 Tour when he was the leader due to suspicious locations on the days that he had to pass anti-doping controls during the preparation.
But Vingegaard's quality and passion have prevailed over Denmark's corseted tradition of rollers. The Tour champion fell in love with cycling because of Alberto Contador, another climber. In 2010, after the Madrid native's two triumphs, the teenage Vingegaard, who was 14 years old, asked his father: "Next year can we go to France to climb the same climbs as him?"
Claus, the father, says that they took a while. But that in 2013 they gave the kid the gift. They went to the Alps. “He climbed the Glandon, the Croix de Fer, the Galibier and the Alpe d’Huez. Some multiple times. I followed him by car because he was 17 years old and I couldn't stand him anymore, ”reveals the father.
The problem of the future champion is that in the races, when he competed, he got nervous, he even vomited, which prevented him from performing. For this reason, the managers of ColoQuick, his team in Denmark, advised him to look for a plan B in a fish farm where he stacked and arranged the boxes of fish. That was good for him and in the team he also met Trine, his current partner, 11 years older, who was public relations, the person he always called after each stage in the Tour.
On April 26, 2021, the life of the Danish cyclist began to change. Exactly two months were missing for last year's start in Brest. Until that day, Vingegaard was not going to run the French round. He was not among the chosen ones of the Jumbo. However, the six-month break Tom Dumoulin took to clarify his motivations changed the team's plans.
It was not so long ago that the Dane had released his record with his first stage lap. It was Coppi and Bartali Week, which takes place over five days in March. The Jumbo then decided to test Vingegaard, who was 24 years old, in the Vuelta al País Vasco, which is part of the World Tour. From the beginning he got along wonderfully with Primoz Roglic, who already had two Laps and was the clear leader.
"Primoz has always behaved like an older brother with him," thanks Vingegaard's mother, Karina. No one could think that the Slovenian's abandonment last year would free him and give him the opportunity to be second, after Pogacar.
This 2022 continued to coincide a lot with Roglic and did not win anything until the last stage of the Dauphiné. “There Vingegaard was already stronger than Roglic”, analyzes Rasmussen. What was clear in the stage that he won in the Granon, where he dropped Pogacar and took the lead. Later he repeated it in Hautacam. “If one wins the queen stage in yellow, no one can doubt that he is the best,” Rasmussen points out about the fairness of the victory. "We have seen Pogacar at the limit several times, but I think Jonas has never been in trouble on this Tour, on no climb was he about to give in," says Merijn Zeeman, Jumbo sports director.
The Dane is not satisfied. By age, 25 years old, he may be the first of many. “I don't know how many times I'm going to win. I don't set goals of winning five. I just know that I want to go back and seek victory. I imagine that Tadej too”. In Bilbao, the start of the 2023 Tour, he will not be able to hide. Everyone knows that he will be number 1.
