Jonas Vingegaard, from working in a fish factory to making history on the Tour

When in last edition of the Tour de France Jonas Vingegaard step on the second place on the podium Paris, behind the great Tadej Pogacar and ahead of the Ecuadorian RRichard Carapaz, many wondered who that blond, introverted cyclist was who was able to discuss the glory of two of the best-looking men in the peloton. Some noticed that his sports career was clearly on the rise and months ago he was already winning Coppi and Bartali International Week and that he became second to Itzuliabut Tour is Tour and these are big words.

The Danish runner is left at the gates of glory and a young man who has fought all his life to reach the top of cycling cannot settle for a silver medal, he is looking for gold, although this year again there are few who saw him qualified to discuss the reign of a Tadej Pogacar that before the start of the race it seemed that he had already won the Tour. Never mind the media loudspeaker, Jonah, making sure he doesn’t read the press and only follows the advice his partner gives him, he makes preparations before the ‘Big Loop’ great, like your team, Jumbo-Vismato concentrate all efforts on the harvest Paris. He was second overall in the Tyrrhenian-Adriaticsixth in Itzuliaand despite not finishing the Walloon Arrow and the Lying down is second to Dauphiné Criteriumthe race not long ago was considered the best thermometer for the contenders for victory in Paris.

After flirting with glory in 2021, Vingegaard will give it his all this year to step up and go head-to-head with a Pogacar that maybe he didn’t do the best preparation and that his great rival’s potential might still be ‘little’. The Dane already pointed this out last year, in a message that perhaps few know how to interpret: “I know what it’s like to work hard and that helps me in cycling. He works part-time in a fish cannery and then I trained the rest of the day,” he pointed out.

But before discovering his love for cycling, Jonas dreamed of becoming a soccer player like many other children, but in chasing the ball he will find a handicap with which he also has to fight as a runner: height and weight, and that is that “I was so short that no one passed me the ball and I didn’t do it too well,” he recalled recently. sad in this situation, Jonah He will find his true passion by chance, when his father takes him to see an episode of Vback to denmark who passed near his town, angry. “I liked it so much that I already told my parents that I wanted to be a cyclist. From that day on, I started to ride my bike much more.”

His first club was the ‘The Cycle Ring’, where “I learned a lot, they enjoyed and took care of me”. Like any father, Claus Vingegaard He wanted to do everything so that his son could fulfill his dream, so that he would fight for it, although at first he had to overcome the doubters. “It was very difficult for him to stand in the races and he did not win. He was so light in weight that the leaders of the club he ran in were afraid to throw him to the ground”, in a new challenge that strengthened his personality and character again.

His partner, Trine Hansen, was key to his career

Jonas Vingegaard has known several times the main role of his partner, with whom they have a daughter, Frida, in his way of being and in his sports achievements. “I am a person who loves the family, I love spending time with my women (his partner and his daughter) at home. For me, the important thing is that he is with me, they support me,” he recalled to the press after the time trial before the result in Paris. Jonas has known Trine for years. In fact, they have known each other since Vingegaard was a member of the ColoQuick continental team, before jumping to the World Tour with his current formation, Jumbo-Visma. Trina Hansen was the marketing manager for ColoQuick when she was 14 and he’s… 25

Seeing the will of Jonas, the fAmy Vingegaard vacationed in Alps and with his father he dedicated himself to climbing some of the colossi on which he built his Tour this year, such as Galibierwhere Claus He had already realized the great potential of his son: “By the time I reached the top, Jonas had climbed and returned to where I was about five times.” The passion for cycling grew and the Vingegaard family bought a motorhome to follow the Tour on the road.

In 2016 he was signed by the continental team ColoQuickwith whom he spent three seasons before making the leap Jumbo-Visma and in word tour and since then the images that began to circulate around the world last year, when he was seen working in a fish canning plant in Hansthlom fish cleaning, where he worked until the summer of 2018, half a year before signing for Jumbo-Vismaa past than his French President Emmanuel Macron recalled on Thursday, when he pointed out that “it’s amazing to see a cyclist who until recently worked in a fish factory win”, and that now he conquered his first three-week cycling tour, achieving his second victory for Danish cycling in the Tour de Franceafter Bjarne Riis in 1996, with only 25 years.