"If you had told me four months ago that I would be second, I wouldn't have believed you" - Jonas Vingegaard disappointed but proud of his Tour de France
CyclingMonday, 22 July 2024 at 09:32
The Tour de France came to a wrap with Sunday's time trial in Nice, for many it was a final chance to either go for a stage success, or make up some time in the GC. However the podium was already settled and with Tadej Pogacar absolutely smashing the course, Jonas Vingegaard could already prepare his interview reactions on the way to Nice.
"Under any other circumstances I would have been disappointed," the Dane opened, before coming up with a logical but. "But after everything I've been through this year, with my crash, I don't have the right to do that now. My preparation wasn't optimal, but I also reached a very high level. So Pogacar deserves to win. If you had told me four months ago that I would be second, I wouldn't have believed you."
"It was a special race," the Dane told TV2. "Of course I hoped I could win, but I think that considering the build-up I had, it's quite normal the way it went. I fought for the win for two weeks, but in the last week I broke down and had a few bad days. Somehow I've also never been as tired as I am now."
"I haven't really had a break since November last year," he indicates. "Mentally I'm completely exhausted," the rider said. "If you had told me a few months ago that I would come second, I wouldn't have believed you. At that time I didn't even know if I would ever ride a bike again. So it feels like a victory, to come second here in the Tour. Even at my highest level I would have had a hard time beating Tadej."
"I haven't even had time to let it all sink in," Vingegaard said in his first reaction afterwards. "From the moment I got out of the hospital, I've been focused on the Tour. So everything that happened still has to sink in."
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- Come on, it's not serious and you know it. But If your happiness is winning arguments, even with sophistry, ok. I like making people happy: YOU'RE RIGHT.
maria2024202412-06-2025 - The word is that Jonas is running 150mm cranks on his road bike, I can't tell on his TT bike but they look much shorter. I moved to 155mm cranks at the end of 2023 for both my road bikes and my TT bike, it's been a game changer for me and looks to agree with Jonas as well.awp12-06-2025
- as of the day he rode the TT in yellow at the TDF in ‘21, mvdp had NEVER been in a wind tunnel and NEVER ridden his TT bike a single day except for the days he had to in stage races. that day he finished 5th, one second behind wout, and hung on to his yellow against all expectations.OCexile11-06-2025
- well THIS is music to my ears. i’ve always thought — and said here several times — that van der poel SHOULD be a great time trialist, and the only reason he isn’t is that he just never gives his all unless it’s an event HE genuinely cares about, and for whatever reason he’s just never liked TTs. but his natural riding position is beautifully aerodynamic, and he has the ability to empty his tank to a degree that i think is basically unmatched. i hope his passion for this event grows.OCexile11-06-2025
- So he went from not doing the Vuelta to doing it for training. Guillen must have called his bossabstractengineer11-06-2025
- That said, we’ve seen Jonas being real good in TT before but this was really short and favoured others more.Mistermaumau11-06-2025
- People forgot that EVERY rider not past his peak can attain new levels and that no-one can tell when that happens. Last year Tadej and Remco did it and Tadej kind of again this spring but in a different register, this year it’s Mads, and maybe now Jonas? After the jump there is usually a plateau or even a lull before any more improvements so it’s unlikely Tadej will be even better at the Tour whereas it’s likely Jonas could be.Mistermaumau11-06-2025
- Considering the « unlimited » budget they have, that they’re prepared to pay their leader 8 per year, paying a very good domestique who can take over for the leader in emergency or replace when leader isn’t present (winning around 15x already at this age) 2 per year is the price to prevent him becoming a rival at another team until such time as said leader slows or stops. In the meantime, it wouldn’t be in their interest to allow a chap with this character to develop into leader challenging shape so who is to say if he is receiving optimal guidance for developing into a leader beater?Mistermaumau11-06-2025
- I'm not quite ready to declare Tadej DOA. But it is fantastic to see Jonas back at such good form after a lacklustre springmobk11-06-2025
- In your opinion, the UAE pays a multi-million dollar contract for years to retain a talent, but its real goal is to get a good domestic? I don't believe it.maria2024202411-06-2025
Not reasonable compare a human with lungs injuries in such a recent time with another in normal physical conditions. It was already a miracle to Jonas, take part in Tour de France, I would say unbelievable. To achieve 2nd place in such a hard competition? A very strong minded guy. To turn his impossible mission more difficult, the perfect partner also injured, before the Tour and during the journey. Bad time to Visma-Lease a Bike team.
The problem with media involved in the bubble of expectation is not observing reality.
This was a pretty cool summation of the end of Stage 20 by some guy on FB:
There has been lots of chatter about the win today of Pogacar against Vinegaard. If we study the finish we see that it was a fair contest and Pogacar was taking every measure to offer a fair win to Vingegaard.
1. Pogacar takes front position and evens out to an easy pace.
2. Pogacar keeps looking back.
3. Vingegaard gets up out of the pedals to sprint.
4. Pogacar looks back and sees Vingegaard sprinting.
5. Pogacar launches his sprint against Vingegaard.
6. Jonas shakes head and drops back down.
Pogacar gave Vingegaard every chance to fairly contest the sprint and win on the line. No gifts, but Pogacar did offer a fair competition, even giving Jonas the wheel to attack. To those who say Pogacar sat on the wheel, in the post race interview Vingegaard said he would have done the same if Pogacar engineered the attack.
These guys are great sportsmen, imo!
Here the thing about Vingegaard that someone brought up (sorry I forget the name!): obviously he needed a bunch of TUEs to even make it to the race. And that’s a good thing! What a race we got! And that’s what TUEs should be for. But it wasn’t enough. Still, what a race! A few off days in general, a few on days really on, a stage win nobody could have expected, a last second recovery that secured his second place, and an admiral accomplishment for the man. Really liked how he and Pogacar spent those short seconds with each other at the end of the last mountain stage - honor, competition, humanity. Congrats on the second place.