News

Jonas Vingegaard Set to Win Tour de France on Second Try


PARIS – Head bowed and legs flailing, Jonas Vingegaard crossed the finish line of the penultimate leg of the Tour de France on Saturday and put his hand over his mouth, as if trying to suppress a gasp. He did what he had to do, and his incredible achievement is sinking in.

In just his second Tour de France, and just three years after becoming a professional cyclist, Vingegaard, a 25-year-old Danish racer, scored his victory in cycling’s most prestigious race. .

His victory became official on Sunday, when the race ended with a traditional celebratory trip to Paris. But the Tour was more effective for days, and as Vingegaard finished second in Saturday’s time test against his Jumbo-Visma teammate, Belgian Wout van Aert, his effort on the 25-mile track was enough to help him. leading the overall standings – 3 minutes and 34 seconds ahead of his closest pursuer – it was the final act that delivered almost no drama.

Vingegaard sped past danger in the final laps of Paris, passing – safely – along with his teammates behind goal. His winning time was 79 hours 33 minutes 20 seconds.

“Since last year, I have always believed that I can do it,” Vingegaard said Saturday. “What a relief I did.”

After about three full weeks of the Tour, Vingegaard, as he did on Saturday, immediately looked for a partner and his toddler daughter in the finish line after a time of trial and error for them. a long sweaty hug.

While Vingegaard rode up and down all the endless hills and unforgiving mountains, and on all the flat roads through flower fields and farms, he wanted to take them. During the intense heat of the day, at times above 100 degrees, the road surface melted and caused some riders to step aside from exhaustion, he said, he trained himself for them.

And, in the end, Vingegaard, who grew up in a small fishing town in northern Denmark, won what is believed to be one of the most grueling Tours in history.

Slovene driver Tadej Pogacar is looking for his third consecutive Tour win, second overall, 2:43 behind Vingegaard, after battling Vingegaard for the lead until the final days of the race. Britain’s Geraint Thomas, 2018 Tour winner, came in third, behind 7:22. Every other driver was at least 13 minutes behind Vingegaard.

“I think the battle between me and Jonas is really something special,” Pogacar, 23, said Saturday, conceding the end result. He offered Sunday’s only surprise hint: a late sprint to the lead in Sunday’s final lap, though he was immediately returned to the lead.

“It’s going to be an exciting couple of years ahead for us,” Pogacar said of its new rivalry with Vingegaard. “He’s been up since last year, he’s in control of everything from the start and he’s proven to be a strong driver.”

Going into this Tour, Pogacar can very well expect Vingegaard to be his biggest rival after Vingegaard finished second last year.

In 2021, Jumbo-Visma’s top driver, Primoz Roglic, left the Tour after a crash and Vingegaard took it upon himself. to show what he can do. His performance was spectacular – and unexpected. On the difficult Mont Ventoux, he leave Pogacar behind to record one of the fastest times ever for that legendary climb.

Vingegaard’s entire career is like a fairy tale played on two wheels and fast forward.

Six months before joining Jumbo-Visma in 2019, he was working part-time in a factory in Denmark, where he gutted, cleaned and packed fish into boxes filled with ice. Before that, he worked at a fish auction. He credits his 4am wake-up days and all the hard manual labor in the chilling cold that helped him get to where he is now, at the top of the racing world. bicycle.

His Jumbo-Visma team, especially van Aert, were by his side all the way.

Van Aert has had his own remarkable race, spending every day of the First Disargument in blue, awarded to the driver who accumulated the most points for the finish line and in the sprints. midway. But his biggest achievement of the past three weeks is probably his support of Vingegaard.

Van Aert was there for Vingegaard when his teammates needed him most in the extreme climb of Hautacam that turned out to be the decisive stage in the competition overall. He took off on the breakout track and mercilessly ordered a fast pace, challenging the notion, at 6-foot-3, that lighter, smaller riders like Vingegaard and Pogacar were naturally the ones. best climber.

Pogacar, who was battling Vingegaard for the overall lead, was unable to keep up. As Vingegaard and van Aert continued to climb, the Pogacar faded, looking like a car with an engine spewing out as teammates Jumbo-Visma ran ahead.

Team Jumbo-Visma has won six of the 20 stages of the Tour entering Sunday’s final. After Saturday’s stage, however, Vingegaard faced questions about his fairy tale career. A reporter asked him about his rapid rise in the sport, and how he managed to come 22nd in the 2019 Danish national time test and then almost won the time test on Saturday after three weeks of the Tour.

If Vingegaard was familiar with Tour history, or Danish racing history, he might have expected this question. Dane’s only other man to win the Tour was Bjarne Riis in 1996, and a decade later Riis admitted that he had doped to win the race. Many past winners, although none recently, have been caught doping or have admitted to doing so.

No, Vingegaard said, he didn’t go fast because he was doped. It happened because he and his team improved their aerodynamics by wind tunneling and adjusting his body and bike position.

“We’re completely clean,” he said at his press conference, expanding his denial to include his entire team. “All of us. I can say that to all of you. None of us took anything illegal.”

High-altitude training camps and attention to detail – in the food, equipment, preparation – are what fueled the rise of Jumbo-Visma, he said. “That’s why you have to trust,” he said.

Vingegaard showed great respect for sportsmanship. During a downhill run during Stage 18, Pogacar crashed on a gravel ramp as he and Vingegaard darted down a hill close to each other. But instead of taking advantage of Pogacar’s fall, Vingegaard waited for him in the street, allow your opponent to catch up.

After getting back together, Pogacar reached out his hand in gratitude and clasped hands for a moment that will be re-enacted for years as an example of the good side of sport.

But only one of them was invited to the top of the podium in Paris and celebrate on the Champs-Élysées. Only one person can create family photos and memories that will last a lifetime. And only one will be celebrated in his hometown this summer as the king of cycling.

A series of ceremonies in honor of Vingegaard have been planned in Copenhagen, the host city of the start of this year’s Tour – the start of Vingegaard’s journey to victory.



Source link

news7f

News7F: Update the world's latest breaking news online of the day, breaking news, politics, society today, international mainstream news .Updated news 24/7: Entertainment, Sports...at the World everyday world. Hot news, images, video clips that are updated quickly and reliably

Related Articles

Back to top button