A year ago, after winning his first Tour de France, Jonas Vingegaard changed his phone number on the advice of Trine Hansen, his wife, 11 years his senior.. They say that now there are only 50 people who can call you. That was also part of the plan.
Vingegaard and the shadow of doping: “I would not take anything that I could not give to my daughter”
This was the agony of Pogacar in La Loze: “Tadej, you have to suffer”
The plan. Over and over again, the Danish has used that word both to excuse himself in the bad days (few) and to explain the good ones (most).. Vingegaard's plan and, above all, the plan for the Jumbo Visma, the one that began the same day as the presentation of the 2023 Tour route, when he pouted at first, but then not so much, because on day 17, almost at the end, there was a gift for him. Back in the Alps, instead of the Granon, now it would be La Loze. “We knew that it was really made for Jonas,” explained Richard Plugge these days, the boss of the Dutch team, while rejecting for the umpteenth time all suspicions of doping about his pupil: “He doesn't like to take a paracetamol.”
The plan was to mature his only rival, a Tadej Pogacar with asterisks after his fall in Liège and his wrist injury. Make him believe, endure his attacks in more favorable stages for the Slovenian, not lose much in bonuses or agonizing endings. «Has attacked me for 15 days. By his aggressiveness I understood that at some point he would explode. Those who shoot too much are insecure and in the end they pay for it». And wait for Courchevel, the accumulated unevenness, as well as the fatigue. The Jumbo at full throttle from the start, infiltrated guys to act as a bridge, devilish rhythm. A true mountain stage, long and hard, tailored to a climber as the Tour has rarely seen. What Jonas perhaps didn't know is that not even that day he left Saint Gervais was going to be so decisive.
Vingegaard kisses his ring in the Combloux time trial. EFE
The moral blow was dealt by the Dane in the time trial. It was also part of the plan. And, like everything, it was worked to the millimeter by the Jumbo machinery. He worked hard to hone his stance with Bert Blocken, the aerodynamics professor who works for the team.. Tuning your coupling on the Cervelo. And Jonas was as aggressive as he could be, drawing to the limit, scratching seconds from the start.. The conjunction of everything ended up becoming one of the most perfect time trial exercises in the history of the Tour. So amazing that Indurain would have signed it with 20 more kilos.
Those two days sum up his second victory in a row on the Tour, something that not so many did (Pogacar, Froome, Indurain, Lemond, Fignon, Hinault, Merckx, Anquetil, Bobet, Frantz, Bottecchia, Thijs and Petit Breton), already a legend. More for having defeated a cyclist of the stature of Pogacar in both. But much earlier, as always, Vingegaard was launched, which is considered better in its 2023 version due to a mixture of factors.. «Last year I got sick several times in the spring and had some physical mishap, this year not. And that makes a difference. I keep evolving, I'm improving. Although they are slight improvements, they are noticeable, ”he explained on Saturday in Le Markstein, his yellow shining.
When he talks about the plan, which is often, Jonas does it with astonishing confidence.. Even when Tadej harassed him, nine seconds before going to the Alps. Three times in a row he left the wheel, unprecedented, and the calm of the Dane was frightening, his half smile, so sure of himself now, that young man who came to work cleaning fish, who got on a bike because “he did not have much physique to play soccer” and people were hard on him. Who was not very good at cycling the first few years and then “was not able to withstand self-pressure”, vomited before each race due to stress, despite the fact that all the tests already indicated him as gifted. “Not everyone understood the plan, but we did,” he confirmed with everything finished, without giving further details: “If I reveal it to you…”.
Last year, after winning the Tour, Vingegaard did not compete again until September. A disappearance that raised suspicions. This time he has changed his plans. As announced yesterday in Marca, he will be in La Vuelta leading the Jumbo along with Primoz Roglic. Before, while his antagonistic rival was even thinking of going to the Glasgow World Cup in a few days, he will have the luxury of “eating a durum” back in Denmark, resting and enjoying his family, with his wife and his three-year-old daughter Frida. Because another of the keys to his overwhelming victory over Pogacar is his exclusive dedication to the Grande Boucle. Two shaped blocks, dotted with concentrations at altitude on Teide, Tignes and La de Mayo in the Sierra Nevada. And that this time was seen at the start of the season, as responding to the competitive abundance of Pogacar. He won the general and the three stages of O Gran Camiño in February. He was third in Paris-Nice after Pogi and Gaudu in March. In April, Itzulia signed up, with three of the six stages.
Then, the jump to June. While his rival was undergoing surgery, he was drawing up the Tour, 150 days away from home. The triumph in the Criterium Dauphiné as the definitive test until the start in Bilbao. «I have other objectives, but the Tour is the most important race in the world. It's very special. Yes, next year I will try again, “he warned, again the world at his feet from the sky of Paris.