Mental strength key to Vingegaard Tour win

Headstrong Dane keeps composed until the top step in Paris

- Chris Marshall-Bell

Three years on from not being able to eat dinner or breakfast such were his nerves and apprehension at leading the Tour of Poland, Jonas Vingegaard last week became the first Danish rider to win the Tour de France since 1996, doing so in commanding fashion with two stage wins as he upstaged the defending champion Tadej Pogačar to take victory by 3.34.

Triumph for the Jumbo-Visma man caps off a remarkable few years for Vingegaard, who counts just one other GC victory on his palmarès, the 2021 Coppi e Bartali. The 25-year-old only emerged into stardom with a second place at last year’s Tour.

Quiet and shy, Vingegaard had slowly been developing into a strong climber and potential GC threat since signing for Jumbo-Visma in 2019, but the tall and skinny rider cracked under pressure when taking the leader’s jersey at the Polish race held in the same year.

“Three and a half years ago he was so nervous before every race,” his team-mate Koen Bouwman, the winner of this year’s mountains classification at the Giro d’Italia, told CW. “He didn’t have a specific role, just a free one to do whatever he wanted to do because he was so nervous.

“When he got yellow in Poland, he was the strongest in the race, but he couldn’t eat dinner or breakfast. The team didn’t give him any pressure, but he put pressure on himself not to lose yellow.” Vingegaard, overcome by worry, ceded the lead spectacularly, tumbling from first to 26th overall on the final stage.

Bouwman continued: “He is a whole different person now. He has talked a lot with coaches and battling for second at the Tour last year helped him.