Three months after being crowned as the winner of the 2022 Tour de France, Jonas Vingegaard is gradually starting to enjoy it all. The intensity of his duel with Tadej Pogacar and all the stress of cycling’s biggest race are transforming into a sense of of quiet happiness and pride.
Vingegaard has opted to avoid the spotlight of Thursday’s presentation of the 2023 Tour de France in Paris but if he watches the presentation while enjoying the final days of his holidays, he can rightly savour the highlights video of his 2022 Tour victory.
Winning the 2022 Tour was life changing for the softly-spoken Jumbo-Visma rider, with a sudden wave of fame and public attention sweeping into his life. The 25-year-old started the Tour on home roads as a contender but then lived in a protective bubble as he raced the best three weeks of his life and fought to win the yellow jersey.
When he emerged from the other end he was a national hero in Denmark. Nothing would ever be the same and he needed several weeks away from racing and the spotlight to take it all in and recover from the fatigue of the Tour.
“It was definitely huge, bigger than I expected too. Everything was just so crazy for a period,” Vingegaard tells Cyclingnews.
“I still struggle to understand that all those people gathered there just to celebrate my success. That says a lot about the mentality of the Danes, they are such big sports fans. When you at the races, you don’t realise what you represent for your country.
“A lot has changed in my life but fortunately I haven’t changed, at least I hope so. I’m still the same person I was before I won the Tour de France.”
Managing his emotions of the Tour de France
During and after the Tour, Vingegaard was often asked how he managed his emotions, due to concerns about how he handled expectancy and pressure.
He always played down any major problems, but his partner Trine Hansen, his mother Karina and former coaches revealed to L’Equipe how he had suffered with anxiety before major races ever since he was a talented teenager and how it had often wrecked his chances of success.
Sessions with a mental coach helped overcome some of his worst fears and bouts of vomiting in his early years at Jumbo-Visma, while Hansen, who is 11 years his elder and an expert in marketing, taught him how to better…
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