Jonas Vingegaard, the cyclist who came from the cold to dominate the Tour de France

when the team Jumbo-Visma Presenting the lineup for the 2021 Tour his first bet is the Slovenian Roglic is a cousinbut when ‘Rogla’ he had to leave the race due to a fall, they bet everything on one Jonas Vingegaard and they were right. The Dane went to the Tour after having good performances – he won the Sunday of Coppi e Bartali and came 2nd in Itzulia and in Dauphine Criterium– but the question is how he will perform in his second major after being 46th in La Vuelta 2020. The ‘inexperienced’ Danish not only did not disappoint but finished 2nd. It is 5’20” from Tadej Pogacar. On July 18 in Paris there were many who had the third title ‘Pogi’ and few listened to Jonas’ compatriot, the former cyclist. michael rasmussen: “There is only one runner capable of hurting Pogacar and it is Vingegaard”. He’s right!

The following year Vingegaard returned and beat Pogacar, who repeated this year with a difference of 7’29”, the biggest since 2014, when Broken won with 7’37” over Peraud. The superiority of the ‘pale rider’ was revealed. In the mountains, he controlled Pogacar’s attacks to his liking and in the time trial he agreed with those who said he was the most aerodynamic cyclist, best suited to the ‘goat’.

And it never stops getting better. He follows his team’s orders with discipline and never gets tired of winning. After winning last year, he already said that he wanted to come back and win again – “I’m not satisfied with what we achieved” – and this year, with his second win in a row, he repeated the same phrases, obviously stronger and more intimidating to his rivals. Such was the superiority that his performance raised suspicions, but he turned to his beloved family to respond with the truth: “I don’t take anything that I wouldn’t give to my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter”, to which Jumbo doctor Richard Plugge added that he was even against paracetamol. Cautious, but effective as a great predator, it has the virtue of admiring its great rival, pogacar, recognizing that the Slovenian “is the best cyclist in the world because he is more complete. He knows how to do everything, from the classics, to the one-week race or the Tour, but in the Tour I was better”.

Three in the club of five

Discuss vingegaard and the Tour is talking about records. Never in the Tour have the same two riders occupied the first two positions in three consecutive editions and the last time a rider won the Tour two years in a row with the same runner-up was in 1978-79, when bernard hinault surpassed Joop Zoetemelk. They say there is no two without three and Jonas is already thinking of the triplet next year and approaching the club of four cyclists capable of winning five Tours: Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault and Indurain. Pending the start of the Tour on June 29, 2024, Vingegaard has confirmed his presence at La Vuelta, unlike last year when after winning the Tour he took more than three months off before racing again.

Jonas is looking to show that his team is capable of winning three grand tours in the same season – he has the Tour, roglic the Giro will lead and bothl Jumbo-Visma in Spain– and achieve the Tour-Vuelta double. The last to do this was the British Chris Froome in 2017, certainly the last cyclist capable of winning three consecutive editions of ‘Big Boucle’ (2015, 2016, 2017) and the last one who more clearly won the Tour before him, when in 2017 he led the Tour from the third stage. This year vingegaard He has done it since the sixth and has already had 27 days in yellow.