Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard hopes to race in Paris 2024 Olympics
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Jonas Vingegaard is given a hero's welcome in Copenhagen after winning back-to-back Tour de France titles.
PHOTO: REUTERS
COPENHAGEN – Two-time Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard said on Wednesday he would like to race in the 2024 Olympics, after being greeted by thousands of jubilant Danes standing in the streets of Copenhagen to celebrate his second successive triumph in the sport’s premier race.
He told local TV 2 that he had informed national coach Anders Lund that he was available for the Olympic road race in Paris in 2024.
Contacted by the channel, Lund welcomed Vingegaard’s offer but did not promise him an Olympic ticket.
“It is not a route that suits me 100 per cent, I believe. And there are many other good Danes, so it may be that he will not choose me,” Vingegaard told TV 2.
The soft-spoken champion appeared on the City Hall balcony to celebrate his triumph in front of a mass of fans decked out in red and white, the colours of the Danish flag, or in yellow shirts, as famously worn by the leader in the Tour.
“I’m a big fan of yours, and I am not the only one,” Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Vingegaard during a speech at City Hall.
“You’ve won the hearts of all Danes, and we are so proud of you.”
Vingegaard, 26, is the first Dane to become a two-time Tour winner. In 2022, he joined 1996 champion Bjarne Riis as the only other Danish champion.
He moved into the yellow jersey after the sixth stage of the 2023 race and was then involved in a classic and hugely compelling mountain battle with Slovenian two-time Tour winner Tadej Pogacar.
Vingegaard, however, stamped his authority on the race when he hammered Pogacar by a crushing 1min 38sec on the 16th stage, an individual time trial, to effectively seal the deal. He said after the race that it might have been his best day on a bike ever and the Danish fans agree.
Mikkel Feldtmann Hansen, 24, has taken the day off from his job as a sergeant in the Danish Royal Guard to come and greet the Danish Tour de France riders.
“It’s such an accomplishment to win the Tour de France and it’s rare to see Danish sportsmen achieve these big wins and get to be cheered on by their nation,” he said.
Vingegaard and his family were flown to Denmark on Wednesday following celebrations in the Netherlands, home to his team Jumbo-Visma.
“It’s hard to believe that I’ve won the Tour de France two years in a row. That we’ve won it,” he said.
Last Sunday, he crossed the finish line after the 21-day race 7min 29sec ahead of Pogacar, the champion in 2020 and 2021. His winning margin was the largest since 2014, when Italian Vincenzo Nibali won by 7min 39sec.
More than a million people in the country of some 5.8 million tuned in to watch the final stage of the race, according to broadcaster TV 2, which recorded a peak of over 1.2 million viewers across its digital and television broadcast for the final stretch on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
Vingegaard, who hails from the small village of Hillerslev and worked in a fish market as a teenager, admitted that he doubted himself during 2023’s race, and his humble persona strikes a chord with many Danes.
“He is amazing, he has won two times now and hopefully he takes No. 3 next year,” Kenneth Nielsen, a teacher who said he drove 300km to welcome the cyclist home. REUTERS, AFP
