Jonas Vingegaard shrugs off debate to shine on Tour de France stage 2

Jonas Vingegaard famously spent time icing fish on a factory floor before dedicating himself to cycling full-time. These days, he spends July in the goldfish bowl of the Tour de France, with all the scrutiny that entails.

Although Vingegaard was one of the main aggressors en route to third place on stage 2 to Boulogne-sur-Mer, he found himself being quizzed after the finish about critical comments his wife Trine Marie Hansen had made about his Visma | Lease a Bike team in an interview with Danish newspaper Politiken.

In the interview, Hansen had suggested Visma’s demands in training were "squeezing the lemon too much", and she also criticised the team’s strategy of entering the Tour with multiple goals.

"I know that Trine supports me 100%, and she will do everything she can to help me perform at 100 per cent. She only wants the best for me," Vingegard told TV2 Sport after stage 2.

"I haven’t actually read the article, I’ve just heard something about it. So I’m not 100% sure what it says. I don’t read the media while I'm cycling, so it’s difficult for me to answer that question."

When Vingegaard spoke with international media, he faced a similar line of questioning, and he again played a straight bat.

"Of course, it’s a lot of training camps and altitude camps during the year, so of course it’s hard on family life, but I’m still riding and I haven’t had a burn-out yet,” he said “Of course, we have the goal here of trying to win the GC, but we also have other goals to win stages. Today we wanted to go for the stage with Wout van Aert, but he didn’t feel so good so in the end I had to try for it."

Vingegaard demonstrated the fruits of his pre-Tour labours at Sierra Nevada and Tignes on the punchy finale to stage 2, the longest of the race. He was well positioned on the series of short, sharp climbs in the closing kilometres before launching an attack of his own with 5km remaining. 

He didn’t manage to forge clear, but he ensured he was well placed in the reduced group that contested the uphill finale in Boulogne-sur-Mer. He couldn’t live with stage winner Mathieu van der Poel’s finishing speed, but he did manage to take third behind Tadej Pogacar. In the overall standings, Vingegaard now lies third, six seconds behind Van der Poel and two behind Pogacar.

"To be honest, the result was better than I expected," Vingegaard said. "I didn’t expect to be third on a stage like this, I’m really happy with my legs and how it went.

"We wanted to go for Wout today. I think he didn’t have the legs today. Then we tried to go for me and do something with Matteo as well. It turned out to be a good day. Obviously, we would have liked to win the stage with Wout but third is the maximum when he’s not there."

The result was a near repeat of the hectic opener to the Critérium du Dauphiné, where Vingegaard took third behind Pogacar and Van der Poel after sparking the winning move in the finale.

"I’ve done now two bunch sprints so then I guess I’m a sprinter," he smiled. "It’s quite a good result behind two of the best riders on this terrain, so I can be happy with my shape.

"I think Mathieu was just the strongest. I think Tadej tried against him, but it seemed like Mathieu was a little bit better. I was almost gapped, but I think managed to get the same time at least."

Before the Tour, Vingegaard revealed that he was carrying considerably more muscle now than he was a year ago, when his preparation was interrupted by a crash at Itzulia Basque Country. That change in regimen doubtless stood him in good stead on a finale like the one in Boulogne-sur-Mer, but he confessed that he preferred the more mountainous openings to the past two Tours.

"It’s very hectic when you start with stages like this, personally, I liked the last two editions more,” he said. “This is a lot more stress, but it’s a part of the Tour."