As in 2021 and 2024, Jonas Vingegaard finished in 2nd place in Tour de France Behind his big rival Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). If the gap with the Slovenian world champion has been a little reduced (4'24 “against 6'17” last year), it now seems quite clear that the Danish evolves a tone below the quadruple winner of the Large loop. Which did not prevent the leader in Visma | Lease a Bike to appear all smiles at a press conference this Sunday evening following the podium on the Champs-Élysées to answer some questions from journalists, alongside his teammate and winner of the 21st stage Wout van Aert. With some interesting information, including the confirmation he, according to him, has evolved at a level that he had never reached in his career over these three weeks.
What is your feeling after this 21st stage and your podium on this 2025 Tour de France?
It's always special to come to Paris. It's the end of the world's largest race, and there are so many people. Normally, the weather is nice, but today it was horrible. In a way, it's really special to be here and on the podium. It is clear that when I think back to my career and what I have accomplished, I think it is something that I can be proud of: I ran the Tour de France five times and went on the podium five times. It is clear that I would have liked to win. I don't hide it, but it's still something that I can be proud of.
Jonas, your Visma team | Lease A Bike said you have reached your best performance level on this tower. Can you confirm this and get satisfaction despite your 2nd place?
Yes, on certain steps it was the case. And on others, I have known my lowest level for several years. So there is confirmation that I was better than I have never been but also that I could have bad days. I came here to win the Tour de France, and I think it was realistic in a certain way. But with my two bad days, I wasted a lot of time. On my 5 podiums on the Tour, it is the one of which I am the least satisfied.
The Tour has always been your main objective in recent years. Could it change in the future?
I have always said that I would like to participate in the Giro one day. I’m not saying it will be next year but we have to discuss it with the team. We will do our plans this winter and we will see.
You now turn to the Vuelta. What is your program in the coming days?
First, I will do a more or less quiet week before starting to train. In fact, it will especially be a question of waiting to feel fresh again. Then we will have only two and a half weeks of training, which does not leave much time but I did it two years ago and it had gone pretty well (2nd place behind his teammate Sepp Kuss). I hope this will still be the case.
What did you think of the circuit by Montmartre this Sunday?
I did not like too much but I enjoyed hearing on the radio what was going on (the victory of his teammate Wout Van Aert, editor's note) while I suffered on the cobblestones. It was a good decision to freeze the times to the general.
