The Tour de France, which visited Denmark for the first time in its history at the start, entertained the riders with various stories. In the beginning, it was local Magnus Cort Nielsen, who ran every day and wore the jersey of the best mountaineer. He then continued to be extremely combative in France.

Dutchmen Dylan Groenewegen and Fabio Jakobsen, who collided in a serious and almost tragic accident in August 2020, finished for the laurels of the stage. Olympic mountain bike champion and cyclo-cross world champion Tom Pidcock won on the famous hill of Alpe d’Huez.

Canadian Hugo Houle, meanwhile, dedicated his surprising triumph to his late brother, who was run over by a drunk driver ten years ago while racing.

And in the end, Jonas Vingaard won the battle for the overall championship. In two key stages, he beat the seemingly invincible Tadej Pogačar. Whenever the Slovenian attacked, he was immediately on his heels.

“It’s just incredible”, breathed the 25-year-old Dane on stage in the center of Paris. “I won the greatest race in the world, now no one will take it away from me,” he said happily with his two-year-old daughter, Frida, in his arms.

At the same time, four years ago, a relatively large question mark hung over the professional career of the native of the city of Hillerslev.

“I finished my studies in 2016 and had to look for a job. Until the summer of 2018 I worked in a fish processing company,” the Dane once said. His fellow cyclist Michael Valgren helped him find the brigade.

He helped in the auctions where he checked the boxes of goods. Later, he cleaned the catches of fish and stored them in coolers. He only sat down to practice on his bike in the afternoon, after his shift in the cold.

In 2019, an offer came from Dutch world tour team Jumbo-Visma, where Vingaard transferred from Danish continental outfit ColoQuick.

However, a significant breakthrough did not happen immediately. In the race for the Danish champion he was not even in the top twenty, at the Vuelta 2020, his first Grand Tour event, he took the forty-sixth position. He really caught the attention of France last year.

After the resignation of injured leader Primož Roglič, Vingaard became plan “B” for Jumbo-Vism. He took the opportunity of a lifetime to take an excellent second place, in a climb he even shook the otherwise sovereign Pogačar.

At that time, however, the Danes knew far more than Vingaard his mother-in-law Rosa Kildahl, who rose to fame in the television cooking competition “The Great Danish Bake Off”.

“All of Denmark knows her,” Vingaard’s mother said during the Tour last year.

Kildahl appears on cooking shows and has 38,000 followers on Instagram. At least in this sense, her son-in-law has already largely surpassed her after the victorious Tour, he is followed by nearly 300,000 fans on Instagram.

On arrival, the modest and introverted Dane especially thanked his teammates. Pogačar’s main challenger Roglič failed to finish the Tour again, Steven Kruijswijk also had to finish early.

Nevertheless, the Jumbo-Visma stable had a fairy tale run at the end.

Vingaard won the yellow and polka dot jersey, his Belgian teammate Wout van Aert completely dominated the goalscoring competition. He won three stages, including the time trial, and also made a significant contribution to Pogačar’s “kitchen” during the ascent to Hautacam.

The five Vingaard, Van Aert, Sepp Kuss, Tiesj Benoot and Christophe Laporte then savored the arrival on the Champs-Élysées together. They crossed the finish line in a shoulder hug.

“I’m going to celebrate and also get some rest. I can’t wait for a week on the couch,” smiled Vingaard. “Then I’ll want more,” he added briefly.