Jonas Vingegaard stunned everyone with his reward. "I'm eating a Dürüm," said the slender Dane with a grin. However, Vingegaard doesn't want to indulge in the filled flatbread roll until he returns from the Tour de France to Glingøre, his home in the north of Jutland.
Before that, the white wine lover should have at least a glass or two in Paris. With a 7:29 minute lead over Tadej Pogacar, the Tour d'Honneur set off for the second Tour victory on the Champs-Élysées.
Vingegaard repeats last year's victory
Vingegaard easily fended off the last desperate attack by his Slovenian rival in the Vosges on Saturday. He gladly left the day's victory to him. Shortly after crossing the finish line, his wife Trine's mobile phone rang and it was Crown Prince Frederik on the line. "He told her that he congratulated me and that he found it very impressive that I had won the Tour twice in a row. He was very happy," Vingegaard revealed.
It was a tough battle up until this luck, with the Dane and Pogacar separated by just a few seconds for a long time. "It was an incredible battle between me and Tadej this year. It was really tough to break him down," said Vingegaard. The rivalry between the two will characterise the coming years and provide cycling with great duels.
Vingegaard has the momentum. Last year, he distanced Pogacar by 2:43 minutes, this year his rival experienced the biggest collapse of his career on the 17th stage and lost almost six minutes on the most difficult section of the Tour. "I cracked myself. Nobody else did. It was me," said Pogacar about his "worst performance of all". The Slovenian was also affected by a scaphoid fracture suffered in the spring and was unable to prepare ideally for the Tour.
On the other hand, things went 100 per cent according to plan for Vingegaard. Altitude training camps on Tenerife, in the Sierra Nevada and in Tignes were interspersed with races. "I won't be at home with my family for 150 days this year. You have to make a lot of sacrifices to win races," said Vingegaard. In contrast to last year, he was not slowed down by illness or injury.
Vingegaard: "Have learnt to deal with pressure"
This is how the best Vingegaard in history came to the Tour and astonished above all with the legendary individual time trial at the foot of Mont Blanc. Reflexively, doubts arose, the past of cycling is omnipresent. He could understand the sceptics, said Vingegaard. He even welcomes it when his performance is scrutinised. But he wouldn't take anything that he wouldn't give to his daughter Frida.
"I get a little better every year. It's not like I get 20 per cent better in one year. It's always small steps," said Vingegaard. This year, he has worked on his explosiveness, which was definitely visible. Until he became a winning rider, it was also a mental battle for the 1.75 metre tall man from the Danish North Sea: "I only started delivering results two years ago. Before that, I couldn't handle the pressure I put on myself. I've learnt to deal with it."
What he is still not entirely comfortable with, however, is the spotlight. He will be in the spotlight again when he returns to Denmark. On Wednesday, he will once again be given a big reception in Copenhagen. He will travel from the airport in a convertible to City Hall Square, where tens of thousands welcomed him last year. A day later, the journey continues to Glingøre. Incidentally, they were so confident of victory there that they started planning the reception back in January. It is not known whether Dürüm will be served.
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