“Jonas indirectly came into contact with the president” - How “frightening” Donald Trump chaos threatened Vingegaard’s key Tour de France training camp
Cycling
Jonas Vingegaard’s Tour de France preparation has mostly been discussed in familiar sporting terms: the Giro d’Italia in his legs, the altitude camp in Tignes, and the question of whether he can carry that level into another three-week fight with Tadej Pogacar. Nathan Van Hooydonck has now added a rather stranger detail to the story.
Before Vingegaard reached the quiet of the French Alps, his final altitude block briefly collided with Donald Trump’s visit to the Lake Geneva region for the G7 summit. Air Force One on the tarmac, closed border crossings and a four-hour standstill turned what should have been a straightforward transfer towards Tignes into an unexpected pre-Tour headache.
“Jonas indirectly came into contact with the president,” Van Hooydonck said on the De Rode Lantaarn podcast. “After our flight towards Tignes, we landed in Geneva. Jonas asked me whether I had seen a particular plane standing there when we landed. I was not sitting on the right side, though, so I had not seen it.”
The plane was Air Force One. Trump was in Evian-les-Bains for the G7 summit, held from June 15 to 17 on the French side of Lake Geneva, close enough to the Swiss border for the security operation to spill into the routes Vingegaard’s group needed.
Air Force One, closed borders and a four-hour delay
Vingegaard had travelled towards the Alps after winning the Giro d’Italia and taking a short period of rest. Tignes was the base for one of the final building blocks before the Grand Depart in Barcelona, but the journey there quickly became a reminder that even the best-controlled Tour preparation can run into problems beyond the team bus.
“I asked him: which plane was there then?” Van Hooydonck continued. “That turned out to be Air Force One. Donald Trump was in Evian-les-Bains at the time for the G7 summit. We had not stopped to think at all about how much impact that has on a country.”
With world leaders, delegations and security services moving through the region, the route out of Switzerland became blocked. Van Hooydonck said the group tried to continue towards Tignes before accepting that the evening plan was slipping away.
“We then wanted to drive to Tignes, but we spent four hours in the car just trying to get out of the country,” he said. “All the border crossings were closed. We were stuck in a traffic jam... It was frightening.”
Donald Trump has some cycling history from his Tour de Trump creation
A strange start to Vingegaard’s final Tour block
The delay forced the group into a late change of plan. Rather than pushing on towards Tignes, they stopped near Geneva and found a hotel, already wary that the next morning could bring more of the same disruption.
“At one point, we really thought: we need to sleep somewhere, otherwise we are not going to get to Tignes at a decent hour,” Van Hooydonck said. “We pulled over by the side of the road, just over the Swiss border, because we were already taking into account that it would be the same the next day. That way, at least, we could drive freely towards Tignes the following morning.”
Only once they checked the route the next day did the scale of the delay become fully clear. “We found a hotel fifteen minutes from Geneva,” Van Hooydonck added. “The next morning I looked at the route from that hotel to the airport. It was a fifteen-minute route, and it had taken us four hours. It was really terrible.”
Vingegaard still made it to Tignes and completed the camp that now forms part of his Tour build-up after Giro success. On the eve of the race, though, Van Hooydonck’s revelation adds an unlikely scene to the Dane’s road to Barcelona: a Tour favourite stuck near Geneva, waiting for the security bubble around Air Force One to clear before he could climb towards altitude.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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leedorney02-11-2026 - Watch the interview on youtube. I don't speak French. I do speak English and Spanish and you can hear it in his voice. Years ago LeMond had real personal problems I imagine in no small part because of Armstrong. then Armstrong goes round "full blast" re: LeMond having drinking and drug problems. The same way Andreu was expelled from mainstream cycling so was LeMond. On the positive side the clips of the ride and chatting with old teammates and was good. To seemed like a fun day and experience and good reason brush up his French.atom02-11-2026
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Rafionain-Glas02-11-2026 - Welcome to the off-season.
santiagobenites02-11-2026 - guillaume martin in this list is quite a surprise as a gc rider.Ketterechts02-11-2026
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