Paris — With his head down and his legs agitated, Jonas Vingegard crossed the finish line of the penultimate stage of the Tour de France on Saturday and put his hand in his mouth to control gasping. He did what he was trying to do, and his amazing achievements were sunk.
Only three years after becoming a professional cyclist in his second Tour de France, 25-year-old Danish rider Vingegard won the most prestigious race in cycling.
In the time trial on Saturday, Yves Bissouma finished second behind Jumbo Bissouma’s teammate Wout van Aert, but his efforts on the 25-mile course led him to a big lead of 3 minutes and 34 seconds overall. Was enough to leave. You can catch him on Sunday when the race ends with a traditional festive ride to Paris.
“Since last year, I’ve always believed I could do that,” said Vingegard as his eyes began to improve with tears. “I’m relieved that I did it.”
After a 76 hour 33 minute 57 second race and a nearly three week tour, Vingegard found a partner and a toddler daughter in the area past the finish line and made a long sweaty hug.
“It makes more sense to me that the two girls are on the finish line,” he told the post-race interviewer and stopped for a moment to wipe the tears. “I am very happy and proud,” he added.
Vingegard wanted to walk up and down the endless hills and relentless mountains, cross all the flat roads past the fields of flowers and farms, and win for them. During the heat of the day, sometimes over 100 degrees Celsius, the pavement melted and heat exhaustion set aside some riders, he said, he trained himself for them.
And in the end, Vingegard, who grew up in a small fishing village in northern Denmark, won arguably one of the toughest tours in history.
Slovenian Tadej Pogačar is aiming for three consecutive victories on the tour, and after competing for the lead with Vingegard, he remained in second place overall after stage 20 until the final few stages. 2018 tour winner Geraint Thomas of the UK was third, 8 minutes 13 seconds behind.
“I think the battle between me and Jonas was really special,” said Pogačar, 23. He has stepped up since last year and has been in control of things from the beginning, proving that he is a strong rider. “
Taking this tour, Pogačar is likely to have expected Vingegard to become his biggest rival after last year’s unlikely second-place finish.
In 2021, Jumbo Bissouma’s top rider Primož Roglič dropped out of the tour after the crash, and Vingegard took the tour to show what he could do. His performance was breathtaking and unexpected. In the daunting Mont Ventoux, he left Pogačar behind and set one of the fastest times in history on his legendary climb.
The entire career of Vingegard is nothing more than a fairy tale that unfolds with two wheels and fast forward.
Six months before joining Jumbo Bissouma in 2019, he worked part-time at a factory in Denmark. There he took the fish from his guts, washed them and packed them in ice-filled boxes. Prior to that, he worked at a fish auction. He admits that when he woke up at 4am and all the hard physical labor in the shivering cold helped him reach his current location at the top of the cycling world.
His jumbo Bissouma team, especially Van Aert from Belgium, has been on his side all the time.
Van Aert ends the tour with a green jersey awarded to the rider who scored the most points in the stage finish and mid-race sprint section. If he crosses the line first on Sunday, he may add to his three-stage win on this year’s tour.
But perhaps Van Aert’s greatest achievement in the last three weeks has been the support of Van Aert. Van Aart was there for Vingegard when he needed him most for the tough Howtakam climb. It turned out to be the decisive stage of overall competition. He took off breakaway, dictated a mercilessly fast pace, and at 6 feet 3 challenged the notion that a light and small rider like Vingegard was of course the best mountaineer.
Pogačar, who was fighting for the overall lead with Vingegard, could not catch up. As Van Aert and Van Aert continued to climb, Pogačar faded and looked like a neutral, coasting car on the hills when Jumbo Bizma’s teammates rushed forward.
The Jumbo Bissouma team won six of the 20 stages of the tour entering the finale on Sunday. On Saturday, Van Aert wept overwhelmed by the efforts of his team and his own stage victory. He said there was nothing more happier for Vingegard and that day was a “dream scenario.”
“Jonas was a very strong person, but especially a very good person,” he said.
But after Saturday’s stage, Vingegard faced questions about his fairy-tale career. One reporter asked him about the rapid growth of his sport and how he finished 22nd in the 2019 Danish National Time Trial and nearly won Saturday’s time trial three weeks after the tour.
If Vingegard was familiar with the history of the tour and the history of racing in Denmark, he might have expected the question. The only other Dane to win the tour was Bjarne Reese in 1996, and ten years later Reese admitted that he was dope to win the race. Many past winners, though not recently, have been involved in or admit to doping.
No, Vingegard said he didn’t go fast because he was dope. It happened because he and his team struggled in the wind tunnel and improved his aerodynamics by adjusting his body position and bike.
“We are completely clean,” he said at a press conference, spreading his denial to include his entire team. “Each of us. I can say that to all of you. Not all of us are taking anything illegal.”
Behind the rise of Jumbo Bissouma was a training camp in the highlands and attention to detail (meals, equipment, in preparation), he said. “That’s why you have to trust,” he said.
Vingeguard seems to take sportsmanship seriously. On a descent on Stage 18, Pogačar collided with a section of gravel as Pogačar and Vingegard zoomed down the hill almost side by side. But instead of taking advantage of Pogačar’s crash, Vingegard was down the road waiting for him. Allow his rivals to catch up..
After returning together, Pogačar reached out with gratitude and two clenched hands. This has been played for years as an example of the good side of sports.
But now only one of them climbs the podium in Paris and celebrates on the Champs Elysees. Only one person poses for lifelong photos and family memories. And this summer, only one person will be celebrated as the King of Cycling in his home country.
A series of ceremonies honoring Wingegard will already take place in Copenhagen, which hosted the start of this year’s tour. This is a kick-off to Wingeguard’s victory.
