Jonas Vingegaard is getting used to this. Another Tour de France, another yellow jersey in Paris, another winner’s speech on the Champs-Élysées. The modern tradition started with Lance Armstrong’s infamous “cynics and sceptics” oration of 2005, but the speakers that followed have generally tended towards diplomacy.
Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas made forays into humour, of course, but, as in 2022, Vingegaard played a straight bat when he was handed the microphone, thanking his Jumbo-Visma team, his rivals and his family.
“It’s been an amazing year, an amazing Tour de France for us. It all starts somewhere, of course, and we started the plans early,” said Vingegaard. “Tonight, we will celebrate it with a nice dinner, and it will be really nice a nice evening as well.”
There will not, of course, be much time for celebration in Vingegaard’s schedule. On Sunday morning, word filtered through that he would take part in the upcoming Vuelta a España, setting out from Barcelona on August 26 as Jumbo-Visma’s co-leader alongside Primož Roglič.
Already the winner of the Giro d’Italia in May, Roglič is seeking a fourth Vuelta title, while Vingegaard is looking to add to his rapidly growing palmarès. Jumbo-Visma, meanwhile, are aiming to complete a remarkable clean sweep of the season’s three-week Grand Tours, a feat that proved beyond even Team Sky in their years of plenty.
“We made the decision already in November last year, so it’s been the plan all the time, but now was the moment to break the news. I’m really looking forward to the Vuelta as well,” Vingegaard said at the start of Sunday’s stage in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. “Of course, I will enjoy today, I will enjoy the Tour de France win, but then in one week’s time from now, I’ll start focusing on the Vuelta.”
Since the Vuelta moved to its current slot on the calendar in 1995, only one rider – Chris Froome in 2017 – has managed to win the race and the Tour in the same season. Before he mounted the podium on the Champs-Élysées, Vingegaard confirmed that he would travel to Spain with designs on overall victory against a deep field that will also include Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), Geraint Thomas (Ineos) and Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates).
“I think so. I hope so at least, but we will see in a month,” Vingegaard said. “The plan is that we go there to win as a team, with both me and Primoz as leaders.”
As dusk fell gently over Paris on Sunday evening, however, Vingegaard…
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