In the cycling peloton, we look at the physical first. The little new ones quickly find themselves undressed from the look: size, morphology and especially the legs. In 2018, Tony Hurel discovers those of Jonas Vingegaard during the 3rd stage of the Tour du Loir-et-Cher. “When you’re slender and with big femurs like him, you climb well. A climber, you spot him by his legs”. Soon to be “retired”, the runner from the Saint-Michel Auber 93 team loves to brag about it to his six-year-old son: “You know, dad beat the yellow jersey at Vendôme. »
This 21-year-old Dane with his black and white striped jersey from the modest ColoQuick team immediately caught his eye. “In the little “raidard” towards Vendôme, he had placed a hell of an attack. I had managed to come back and beat him in the sprint, continues Hurel. But he had impressed me and I had done some research on the internet in the evening to see his results. » He discovers a track record almost as pale as the face of the future winner of this Tour de France 2022.
Jonas Vingegaard has long been a well-hidden secret. In his country already. Before his surprise podium in 2021 in Paris – second, behind Tadej Pogacar – the Jumbo-Visma rider (25 years old today) is still presented as the son-in-law of Rosa Kildahl, local celebrity for his pastry talents glimpsed in various shows of the kind. Even dressed in a yellow jersey and surrounded by the cameras, the son-in-law still exudes an anti-star side. Almost absent. Trine Hansen, his girlfriend, describes him as “secret and very shy”.
Celebrity took Frida’s young dad, soon to be two years old, by surprise. The love of his compatriots too. In Copenhagen, at the start of the 2022 Tour, his tears during the presentation of the teams betrayed a mixture of emotion and astonishment after the ovation reserved by the public massed in the Tivoli gardens. “Jonas is still a sensitive and shy guyconfirm Anders Lund his coach in the national team in the hopes category. He had to find a way to deal with the pressure that his talent and performance generated. »
This talent, no one had spotted it at the start. In the trajectory of some future winners of the Tour, there is sometimes something like an anomaly in retrospect. The Briton Bradley Wiggins was a chubby wheeler focused on the love of hops and his compatriot Chris Froome a funny disarticulated puppet landed in Kenya without significant results. Jonas Vingegaard is the former “fishmonger” who became champion.
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