Before becoming the famous winner of the Tour de France 2022, Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard was completely in the shadows.
Professional cyclists have, like all great athletes, the particularity of having followed their vocation very early. However, there are some who have had another job before racing in a pro team. This is the case of Dane Jonas Vingegaard, winner of the Tour de France last year.
However, few people knew Jonas Vingegaard before the start of the 2022 Grande Boucle. “Even we in Denmark did not know him before the start,” his compatriot Michael Rasmussen told the Parisian last summer. Initially not scheduled to start the Tour, Vingegaard eventually replaced Jumbo-Visma team leader Tom Dumoulin a year earlier. Fate did it right as he won last summer ahead of the road star who has now become his rival, Tadej Pogacar.
The Dane pocketed 500,000 euros for his victory, the sum awarded to the first in the general classification of the Tour. With bonuses, individual and collective victories, the jackpot is even higher. Especially higher than his salary when he worked as a…fishmonger! Because Jonas Vingegaard did indeed practice this profession in his youth. Like ordinary mortals, the runner had to get a job before making a career in sport, in exchange for remuneration.
A video of the “fishmonger” went viral last year after it surfaced on social media. We see the young man sorting fish in different bins loaded with ice cream.
Maybe the winner of the Tour de France 2022 will return to business after his career or he will find his job for his retraining. For the moment, however, he is considered one of the stars of the peloton and a reference on the roads. At 26, he especially has many things to prove or races to win. Starting with the 2023 Tour?
