Jonas training in the Alps with Wout and Christophe Posted by Josep Termens on Instagram instagram.com/termens?igsh=N… #vingegaard
"I see a touch of Oscar Freire in Jonas Vingegaard" - Visma DS compares Tour de France champion to legendary Spanish world champion
CyclingTuesday, 04 June 2024 at 22:00
Jonas Vingegaard is the talk of the cycling world at the moment. Will the Dane make it to the start line of the 2024 Tour de France? That remains to be seen but one man who has been up close and personal with the Dane's recovery is Team Visma | Lease a Bike sports director, Frans Maassen, with the DS recently opening up on the personality of the two-time Tour de France winner.
"In essence, many riders are insecure, but I have never seen what Jonas was like before. Now he is the opposite and very relaxed," Maassen says in conversation with Wielerrevue about the supposed personality change Vingegaard has undergone since winning his first Tour, becoming more confident in his own abilities and an incredibly driven individual.
In terms of the 27-year-old Dane's personality, Maassen sees a fine comparison to a legendary name of the past in three-time former world champion, the Spaniard Oscar Freire. "I must say that contemporary cycling would be more difficult for someone as absent-minded as Freire. That type is no longer around, but very occasionally I see a touch of Freire in Jonas. They have a certain form of relaxation outside the race are," Maassen explains openly. "And even more importantly: there is a physical similarity. Just like Jonas, Freire was able to quickly improve in terms of level. They go from average to top level very quickly. Léon van Bon was also such a rider."
Freire took three Rainbow Jerseys in 1999, 2001 and 2004
Although Vingegaard's Tour de France participation remains up in the air, the latest news from Team Visma | Lease a Bike's altitude training camp in Tignes is seemingly rather positive. "Jonas will decide for himself whether or not he will go to the Tour. He has to feel for himself whether he is completely ready for it in all respects and whether he is the old Jonas again. The choice is his. We will never force a rider to take a to compete," Merijn Zeeman said recently. "I don't think that decision can be made until a week before the start of the Tour. We do not have another rider of his level and with his characteristics in the team. Jonas is so extremely talented that he can grow to a high level very quickly if he is taxable. That means he has a special place for us and we will indeed be waiting for a long time."
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- i don’t know nearly as much about bruyneel or hincapie as most of us do about lance, but we judge people by the company they keep. i hand no idea what psychological problems the other two have, but there’s gotta be something pretty severely wrong with them if they continue to choose to be close to armstrong.OCexile26-12-2024
- Ayuso and Rodriguez are only 22 and 23. Don't pressure it as they're still so sooo young.
James2631826-12-2024 - Not sure that can be true, in that USA Cycling is part of the UCI.acem8226-12-2024
- Oh, and yes: I am no psychiatrist/psychologist, but Bruyneel and Texas Turd are both sociopaths. It goes well beyond "protect my world and anyone would" that is the usual zeitgeist of their bullshit. No normal person has Bob Roll go at Greg Lemond with an audio recording device at Ron Keifel's bike shop...for example.EricJensenRidesBikes26-12-2024
- Funnier: this website keeps giving credo to their ramblings. In this case, why in any possible way would Boonen want to create a fantasy world to attach himself to these two clowns when more likely he would want to forget he was even there? Laughable.EricJensenRidesBikes26-12-2024
- A sociopath is an informal term used to describe someone with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), a mental health condition characterized by a chronic pattern of disregard for social norms, laws, and the rights and feelings of others.EricJensenRidesBikes26-12-2024
- Rowe spent his whole career on one team being nothing more than a thug for Skyneos. I have no idea why another team would want import this type of person into their program.Sweep26-12-2024
- “CyclingUpToDate would like to extend it's condolences to family and friends of Pascal.” Paging a copy editor….menk26-12-2024
- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024