Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard Hansen (born 10 December 1996) (Rasmussen ) is a Danish professional cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam.

Vingegaard was a spectator, alongside his father, when the first stage of 2007 Danmark Rundt departed on 1 August from Thisted, the main town in the region.

At the race, local cycling club Thy Cykle Ring had set up a home trainer so audience members could see what it was like to cycle up a mountain.

He subsequently enrolled in the club and started riding his first races.

He cycled with the Thy Cykle Ring for five seasons, until he moved to Aalborg Cykle Ring in 2013.

In 2014, his last year as a junior rider, Vingegaard joined Odder Cykel Klub.

When he became a senior rider, he initially struggled and performed poorly in races.

When Odder Cykel Club established a U23 team from the start of 2016, results improved for Vingegaard.

In the spring, he finished on the podium at a race in Aalborg, and in May, he won a section of Pinse Cuppen in Hammel, where the riders had to climb the famed local hill Pøt Mølle several times.

As Vingegaard was beginning to achieve better results in races, Danish UCI Continental team ColoQuick–Cult and general manager Christian Andersen signed a contract with him in May 2016 and he switched teams with immediate effect.

In order to structure his daily life, Andersen had Vingegaard start a job at a fish factory, Chrisfish in Hanstholm.

Working there during weekdays, Vingegaard skinned fish from 6am to noon before practising in the afternoons.

For a time he worked with Michael Valgren at the factory, who was also pursuing a career as a professional cyclist.

In 2016, at age 19, he also accomplished his first major international result, finishing second in the UCI 2.1 level race Tour of China I.

In large parts of the 2017 season, Vingegaard did not take part in many races as he was sidelined with a broken femur after a crash in the 2017 Tour des Fjords.

Before the injury, he finished in fourth place overall and won the youth competition in the French stage race Tour du Loir-et-Cher.

By the time he recovered from his broken leg and the 2018 season began, he returned to strong form.

On a training trip to Spain in early March 2018, Vingegaard set the time record on the test climb Coll de Rates.

He cycled the 6.5 kilometers in 13.02 minutes, which was 12 seconds faster than the previous record holder Tejay van Garderen.

In mid-2018, his physique was tested at Team Danmark.

Afterwards, sports physiologist Lars Johansen said about Vingegaard:

"He simply has a pump and a heart that is in a class of its own. His [heart] is far clear of the average of Danish, male cyclists'. He has a plus of maybe 15 percent, and that is significant."

He joined in 2019, and that year, he achieved his first UCI WorldTour win in stage 6 of the Tour de Pologne.

Vingegaard, whose youth career initially saw little success, made his Grand Tour debut at the 2020 Vuelta a España.

Then, in 2021, he participated in his first Tour de France and secured a second-place finish overall.

In early 2022, he was appointed Team Jumbo–Visma's co-team captain alongside Primož Roglič ahead of the 2022 Tour de France.

During the race itself, he not only clinched the overall classification but also claimed the polka dot jersey.

This made him the second Danish cyclist ever to win the Tour de France.

He also set a record for the highest average speed throughout the entire race.

In 2023, Vingegaard achieved his second successive Tour de France general classification.

Vingegaard was born and raised in Thy.

He played both football and handball from an early age.

The following year, he finished eighth in the 2020 Tour de Pologne.

He also completed his first Grand Tour, the 2020 Vuelta a España, where he rode as a domestique for Primož Roglič, who went on to win the race overall.

Vingegaard won stage 5 of his first race in 2021, the UAE Tour, before winning two stages and the overall in the Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali.

Later in the year, he finished second overall behind his teammate, Roglič, in the Tour of the Basque Country.

In April, Vingegaard was named as a replacement for Tom Dumoulin in the team's 2021 Tour de France squad.

In the Tour, Vingegaard originally rode as a domestique for Primož Roglič, who was one of big favorites for the GC.

On stage 3, Roglič crashed heavily and despite the team's efforts to bring him back, the team finished almost a minute and a half down.

On stage 5, a 27.2 km individual time trial, Vingegaard finished third to enter the top ten on GC.