"The perfect experiment" - Jonas Vingegaard's coach praises Dane's commitment to being professional

Jonas Vingegaard is almost a one-of-a-kind rider in the modern peloton and is currently a two-time Tour de France winner. This comes as a result of many factors, one of them being his willingness to follow to the absolute best of his abilities the training prescribed by his coach Tim Heemskerk, who praises him quite a lot.

“It may sound strange, but Jonas has actually been the perfect experiment. In terms of ‘compliance’, adhering to the schedules, he does everything down to a few decimal places, so to speak," Heemskerk said in an interview with Ride Magazine, as shared by Wielerflits.

“If you tell him to train for five hours in a certain zone, he will ride those five hours in that zone. He understands very well that you can discover exactly what works well and less well for him based on perfect training schedules". The Dutch coach believes this makes a difference in the end when separating the good from the best.

"Many riders constantly deviate a little from their schedule. They ride 10 watts harder and turn five hours into five and a half hours. Not Jonas. Four hours with VO2 intervals is also 4 hours with VO2 intervals," he continues. "In drawing up those schedules, he gives us as coaching staff the utmost confidence. Incidentally, that is not blindly training like a robot, as is sometimes suggested. That is simply understanding why following a schedule is better.”

Heemskerk also enjoys having a rider like Vingegaard to work with, disciplined to the smallest of details. "The only thing that has changed him is fatherhood, being a family man. After all, he now has two children. We still work with the same routine as before his successes. I think that also suits an introverted personality.”

“When a certain way of working together works well, they are not eager to change anything. The strength of introverted people is that they prepare very well. If I were to call Jonas ad hoc, you would have a normal conversation. But if you make an appointment with him, he has prepared himself down to the last detail," he complements the Dane.