The story behind Jonas Vingegaard’s bizarre winning Paris-Nice outfit
When Jonas Vingegaard crossed the line as stage winner in Paris-Nice, the result was impressive. What really caught the eye, however, was the outfit he wore while doing it. The Danish rider appeared to race with the straps of a long pair of cycling tights pulled over his jersey, creating one of the strangest looks seen in the peloton in years.
Fans watching the decisive phase of the stage noticed something unusual about 25 kilometres from the finish. As Vingegaard removed his rain jacket, it became clear that the Visma | Lease a Bike leader was wearing a long pair of tights over his regular race shorts. Even stranger, the bib straps of the outer layer were visible above both his jersey and the inner shorts.
The explanation behind the curious clothing choice soon surfaced, and it involved a familiar figure in the peloton. According to information shared from the entourage of Victor Campenaerts to Sporza, the Belgian rider had helped modify the outfit before the start of the stage.
“Campenaerts apparently removed the chamois from the long tights stitch by stitch before the start,” commentator Jan Bakelants explained in the broadcast. “If that’s true, it once again shows his incredible value. With two chamois pads, they might have needed to adjust the saddle height, and then Jonas could have started doubting everything. That would have been a disaster.”
The look had little to do with fashion. The stage was extremely cold and wet, and riders started heavily layered. When the race kicked off, the 31-year-old Dane just never got the chance to remove the extra tights.
After powering to the stage victory, Vingegaard himself laughed about the unusual appearance.
“It went so fast,” he said afterwards. “You didn’t even have time to take your clothes off. You can call me a trendsetter with those long pants, but there simply wasn’t time to change. I think many riders were very cold. Personally, I wasn’t, because I had a lot of layers on. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t take them off.”
Team director Marc Reef later explained that the outfit had originally been part of a carefully planned strategy.
“They predicted very tough weather, so we prepared very well,” Reef said to Sporza. “Jonas’ outer tights were partially cut so a teammate could tear them off quickly before the finale. But when the moment came, there was no teammate around. So we decided he would just ride to the finish with them on.”
Reef admitted the result looked unusual but insisted the team only cared about performance.
“It might have looked a bit strange,” he said with a smile. “But the most important thing in those conditions is staying warm. And that worked perfectly.”
A day later, Wout van Aert was also asked about Vingegaard’s remarkable outfit ahead of stage four of Tirreno-Adriatico. The Belgian could not help but laugh at the question.
“We know Jonas, and we know he sometimes dares to start a ride dressed a bit differently,” Van Aert said with a smile speaking to HLN. “He doesn’t really care how he looks on the bike. He’s focused on his goal. And in the end he took a nice step towards the overall classification.”
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