Danish cyclist Jonas Vingegaard won the 110th Tour de France today, when he crossed the finish line, on the Champs Elysées, together with his teammates from Jumbo-Visma, at the end of the 21st and final stage won by Belgian Jordi Meeus (BORA-hansgrohe)

The 26-year-old Vingegaard successfully defended the ‘scepter’ he won last year and is joined on the final podium by two cyclists from the UAE Emirates: the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, the also two-time champion (2020 and 2021) who was again second behind the Dane, now at 07.29 minutes, and the Briton Adam Yates, third at 10.56 minutes.

The 21st and final stage, a 115.1km link between Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and the Champs Elysées, in Paris, was won by Meeus, who crossed the finish line in 02:56.13, ahead of compatriot Jasper Philipsen Bel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla), second and third respectively.

Who is Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard grew in confidence to dominate the Tour de France, his increasingly ‘aggressive’ attitude on the road contrasting with the hermeticity and simplicity he didn’t lose despite his ‘growing’ stature in the peloton.

Enthusiastic and spectacular on the bike, the 26-year-old Dane is monotonous, repetitive and extremely introverted off the bike, in stark contrast to the exuberant Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates), his ‘runner-up’ for the second consecutive year and the firm favorite of fans of the sport, ‘in love’ with the Slovenian’s spontaneity.

However, there is nothing to point out for the Jumbo-Visma cyclist, who, despite not liking the exposure that the two Tour triumphs “forced” him to, is in direct contact, as Lusa saw on the Gran Camiño (the race he chose to start the season and which he won), an extremely polite, humble and even sensitive person.

Jonas Vingegaard is a mystery: deeply trusted — he is attracted to his wife and daughter — and depending on his team, to whom he blindly entrusts his fate, without hesitation (or questions), he transforms himself on the road, where in this Tour de France he showed a “cannibal” instinct and displayed an unprecedented confidence, although behind the scenes he had remained as discreet and hermetic as ever.

It’s in the mountains, not the media or social media (a favorite ‘stage’ for cyclists of his generation), that the slender Dane feels good, though he discovered them late, during a family holiday in the French Alps, even venturing into the terrifying Galibier.

“I discovered my first climb when I was 16. Then I realized it wasn’t bad at all,” he said.

Born on December 10, 1996 in Hillerslev, a small fishing village of only 370 inhabitants, located in a rural area of ​​humble and hard-working people on the North Sea coast, the Jumbo-Visma runner tried several sports before discovering the bicycle: handball, swimming, badminton and even football, but his short stature “prevented” him from making a career in that sport.

An avid Liverpool supporter – specialist website CyclingWeekly says he has been ‘caught’ at Anfield on several occasions – the skinny, blond boy discovered his passion for cycling aged 10, when the Tour of Denmark came past his door.

Although he immediately stood out in a trial organized by the local club for a group of children, and took his first podium in a race weeks later, Vingegaard struggled to assert himself in the national cycling panorama, as his “featherweight” (he is 1.75 meters and 60 kilos) was incompatible with the windy Danish plains.

ColoQuick CULT, a continental team, saw his potential and signed him as a ‘trainee’ in 2016, which, thanks to consistent results, offered him a contract for the following season. But Vingegaard’s progress was interrupted in May 2017 when he broke his femur in a bad fall during the Tour of the Fjords.

Unable to ride a bicycle, he decided to work in a fish processing factory in Hanstholm, the Danish harbor overlooking the Baltic Sea and from where ferries leave for the Faroe Islands.

“I liked that job, even though I had to get up at five in the morning. It was relaxing and I didn’t have to think too much. I just had to take orders for sole and cod, arrange receipts and bids. I didn’t have to work, but I still didn’t know if I was going to be a professional cyclist,” he explains in an interview with Italian sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport.

Even as he recovered from his injury, Vingegaard continued to work at the factory. “It’s not easy to get up early to go to the factory, spend eight hours without rest and then sit on the bike for another four or five hours in the afternoon. That builds character,” he noted.

The now two-time Tour de France champion “absorbed” his key personality traits from that experience and humble origins, to which he adds a kindness recognized by peers and opponents, such as Pogacar, who describes him as “a great guy”.

Cerebral like few others – on the road he never deviates from the ‘plan’ that Jumbo-Visma has set for him -, he has handpicked his calendar this season (he took part in only four races before the Tour and won three, only losing Paris-Nice to the Slovenian from UAE Emirates), he is devoted to his two ‘girls’, who accompanied him every day on this ‘Grande Boucle’.

Trine Hansen, whom he met at ColoQuick CULT (she was in charge of marketing) and whom he married in 2019, and Frida, their nearly three-year-old daughter, are “everything” to the Dane, with the companion playing a key role in his career, who “came off the ground” when he was discovered by Jumbo-Visma, following a 2018 season in which he won the Tour de France time trial of the Future, multiple results in the ‘top 10’ from below -23 level and set a new record for climbing the Col de Rates during a training camp.

“Jonas tends to hide his emotions. We work together to leave him more open and so that I don’t always make the decisions,” acknowledged the woman responsible for the yellow jersey’s ‘fear management’, a mission she shares with Jumbo-Visma.

The Dutch team knew they had to ‘act’ when Vingegaard gave in to the pressure at the 2019 Tour of Poland, a day after winning his debut on the WorldTour and moving into the lead of the race on the eve of the final stage.

“I was not prepared for the pressure, both from the team and from the whole environment and the press,” he admitted after mentally ‘blocking’ and dropping 25 places in the last run.

Jumbo-Visma worked on Vingegaard’s “psychology”, gave him time to grow, brought him to Vuelta2020 to work for Primoz Roglic, with whom he is a personal friend, and in 2021 saw his patience rewarded with a victory in a stage of the Tour of the United Arab Emirates, right at the start of the season, two stages and the overall victory of Settimana Coppi and Bartali and the great second place in the Tour, which he reached after Tom’s’ temporary withdrawal’ ‘Dumoulin.

That ‘spirit’ seemed to return when the rider simply ‘disappeared’ after his first victory in the Tour de France with the news of a possible depression that he himself denied for months.

On this Tour, however, it was noticeable that the confidence of the Dane, who is a fan of Alberto Contador and the Schleck brothers, has grown exponentially, so much so that he even dares a surprising ‘double’ when he rides in the Vuelta between August 26 and September 17.

“I’m more confident and more relaxed in this situation and I think that’s the biggest difference [em relação a 2022]”, he declared today, before starting the last stage of the 110th edition of the Tour de France, which would lead him to the second yellow final in Paris.