Jonas Vingegaard was still working in a fish factory – earning money to help keep his cycling dreams on the road – four years ago and the Tour de France winner still has just 3½ seasons at World Tour level under his belt.
Footage of the 25-year-old Dane working in the fish factory in his native Denmark, up to the summer of 2018, have done the rounds of social media at different times over the last couple of years and was shot by Danish television channel DR back in 2017 for a series on promising young sports stars.
But his rapid ascent from working amateur rider to the top of the sport has really come into focus after sealing his Tour win in Paris on Sunday.
He combined 4am starts at Hanstholm Port with his racing and training until the summer of 2018; something his manager at Jumbo Visma, Merijn Zeeman, said he admired when he signed him ahead of the 2019 season.
Advertisement
"As a personality," Zeeman said, "he was working at the port to pack in all the fish. I really believe when you have a background like that… you have to get up at four o'clock in the morning, you have to work six, seven hours and then you go on the bike, the moment you turn pro it gives you an advantage. The life of a pro is obviously a hard life, but it can also be harder like it was before with him."
After being crowned the 2022 race champion in the French capital today Vingegaard - from Hillerslev in northern Denmark - said he always believed he could win the race, or at least contend to take the final yellow jersey.
“I always had the feeling that at least I could fight for the win. But I think yeah, in the end, when I really started believing was after Hautacam,” he said of winning stage 18.
“I mean, I always believed in it, but then I was really thinking: something has to go almost wrong before I don’t win, that was after Hautacam.”
Related News
Speaking to Eurosport France before the race began in his native Denmark. Vingegaard explained his trajectory to the top of the sport. He rode for Danish Continental team initially, joining them in 2016 at the end of the May for an extended stagiaire period.
He then returned to that team for 2017 and 2018, combing his racing with working in the fish factory. His only victory in a UCI-ranked race during that period was in the prologue TT at Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta Mont Blanc (2.2U).
“First of all, I finished school in 2016. Then you have to work. First it was at the fish auction and I worked there for almost one year," he said.
“Then I had an injury and couldn’t work for a while. When I came back, I started working at a fish factory. I worked there until the summer of 2018, and I joined (Jumbo Visma) in 2019. So, half a year before I joined the team I was still working.
“Michael and I pretty much come from the same area so he also worked at the fish auction. We both know a cyclist from where he came from who’s been working in the fish, so he had the contact, he initiated it. He gave me a number, I called to see what was possible. Both of us got the number from our friend.”
He explained that when he was aged 10-years-old he was playing soccer, but losing interest in it, when his parents brought him to see a stage of the Tour of Denmark. That began his interest in cycling and he joined a small local club, Thy Cykle Ring, with no more than 20 members, who used to drop him on the flat before the even reached a climb.
“I wouldn’t have been a professional if it wasn’t for ColoQuick,” he said of his first team. “The Continental teams give young riders the chance to grow and to develop and also to have the connection with World Tour teams.
“There were a lot of Danish riders when I joined Jumbo-Visma, I spoke with them a lot and got some good advice.
“But I have to give a lot of credit to the sports director of ColoQuick at the time Christian Andersen,” he said of the now manager an Uno-X. “And then after I turned pro I would say my girlfriend, Trine. She had a big impact on my development and I don’t think I would have been able to do all the things I’ve done without her.”
