Visma-Lease a Bike played down potential tensions with Jonas Vingegaard and his family after his wife, Trine Marie Vingegaard Hansen, criticised the team’s extensive training methods in an interview with the Danish newspaper Politiken.
She was outspoken about the sacrifices they have had to make as a family, with the team trying to win the Tour de France again and committing Vingegaard to weeks of altitude camps, which takes away from his time with his wife and two children.
„I’d say Visma is pushing him too far now. I’m afraid he’s burning the candle at both ends,“ Trine Vingegaard Hansen told Politiken. „Jonas needs to recharge to perform his best. The team’s biggest wish is for him to win the Tour de France, so they make plans to get there in the best possible way.
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„That includes a lot of altitude training. But Jonas doesn’t recharge when he’s back at altitude with the team for three weeks. He would prefer to be with us at home in Denmark to do that.“
After a successful second stage at the Tour de France where Vingegaard finished third and moved up to third overall, Visma’s Head of Racing, Grischa Niermann, expressed that the conflict with Trine Vingegaard Hansen has been exaggerated and insisted the relationship between the two parties is operating well.
„You have to ask her, of course, but I think that’s maybe taken a little bit out of proportion. We have a very good working together with Jonas, but also with Trine,“ said Niermann, in direct response to Trine’s comments.
„We always check all this stuff together. We discussed, for example, in the winter that Jonas would not go to altitude camp in February, and that he would stay with the family.“
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After Vingegaard revealed that he is „stronger than ever“ on the eve of the Tour de France, he’s backed that up with two big performances in the Grand Départ, attacking the crosswinds near Lille and again on the road to Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Niermann expressed how Vingegaard is only back at such a high level thanks to the extensive training that his wife criticised.
„Of course, the sacrifice is necessary – Jonas knows that more than anybody else. With the Tour preparation, he was away from home a lot, but that’s also why he’s in this shape now,“ said Niermann.
„For me, it’s some stuff taken out of proportion, and I’m not worried about that. We have very good cohesion with Jonas, but also his family – by preparing him, how we prepared him, he is in that shape that he is now.“
Vingegaard was cautious with his response after being asked similarly at the team bus, also confirming that he was by no means burned out yet, despite all the time away from family.
„It’s a lot of training camps and altitude camps during the year, so of course it’s hard also on the family life,“ he said. „I’m still riding, so at least I haven’t had a burnout yet.“
Surprising himself in the stage 2 sprint
Jonas Vingegaard has been up front and at attention in the two opening stages of the Tour de France (Image credit: Getty Images)
Vingegaard’s wife also called out the lack of full focus on Vingegaard’s GC ambitions, comparing Visma’s pursuit of stage wins with other riders to UAE’s complete commitment to Pogačar and his winning the Tour.
„If you also focus on stage wins for other riders, that can’t be used for Jonas,“ she said. „You can only have respect for how Tadej Pogačar does it. When he’s at the start of a race, there’s no doubt about who the leader is. Everyone knows his role. I think that’s super important.“
Despite the plan from Visma on stage 2 actually being to go for Wout van Aert in the sprint, confirming what she had complained about, Vingegaard himself actually had to step up and contest the final sprint with Mathieu van der Poel and the world champion after Van Aert found himself out of the front group.
It’s fair to say he surprised himself.
„To be honest, today the result was better than expected, I didn’t expect to be third on stage like this, so obviously I’m really happy with my legs,“ Vingegaard told reporters.
„We wanted to go for Wout today, but I think he didn’t have the legs, so then we tried to go for me or try to do something with Matteo. In the end, it turned out to be a good day – obviously, we would have liked to win the stage, but without Wout there, third was the maximum.“
While he sits third on GC heading into stage 3, Niermann sees no weakness in his main rival, Pogačar, with his Classics prowess putting him on home ground against the smaller Vingegaard in the hectic opening 10 days.
„No, not at all,“ said Visma’s head of racing, when asked if he saw a chink in the rainbow jersey’s armour. „He’s always strong and up there fighting with everybody the whole year round, from Flanders, Roubaix, Liège and to the Tour de France.
„Even if his team isn’t there, he does it alone, and he’s a very good opponent.“
Visma may, however, have an in on the team front, with confidence that any crosswind stage like Saturday’s opener should allow their men to flourish against UAE, with a punchy final such as stage 2 equalising things more.
„I think today UAE did really well, still there with I think with four in the final and that was impressive,“ said Niermann.
„On a day like yesterday, obviously, I believe that our team is much stronger than UAE, but we are probably also the two best teams in the Tour, with the two best riders individually.“
Vingegaard’s Tour has started very well, but he’ll need to keep his focus away from the outside noise to ensure he is up to the challenge that racing Pogačar presents.
It will become apparent if his wife Trine’s comments do see him fade after perhaps doing too much in preparation, but for now, the team could only downplay them as „out of proportion,“ not deny their truth.
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