There is a strong woman behind Jonas Vingegaard. She is Trine Marie Hansen, and the Danish cyclist owes much of his victories in the Tour de France to the family relationship.
Quiet life in the Danish countryside
Jonas Vingegaard lives with his wife Trine Marie Hansen, who is 11 years older, and their daughter Frida in Glyngøre, a tranquil village in Denmark with about 1,700 inhabitants overlooking the Limfjord bay (although Vingegaard also owns a house in Italy). The two met six years ago during the presentation of the Danish national team, for which Vingegaard competed.
“I am not a criminal.”
Despite the age difference, it was instant love. “He seemed to be 16,” Trine Marie Hansen said in an interview with the Belgian magazine Humo. “And then he started flirting too! I thought: I can’t do this, he’s so young. Am I not a criminal? But immediately I thought he was such a sweet boy. Fortunately, I found out he was already 21.”
When they met, Vingegaard was not the confident Tour de France winner he is now. “He was only 21. He still lived with his parents in a small village in northern Jutland, while I had already lived and worked in bustling Copenhagen for 11 years.”
Helping Jonas Vingegaard become a man
“When we met, he was still becoming a man, and I had to help him with that. ‘He had to grow up!’ He had to show courage, believe in himself! I helped him with that, yes. I was much further along in life. I had a career. I was the director of a streaming platform.”
Opposite personalities
“We have opposite personalities in the way we approach life. I’m an opportunist: I see possibilities everywhere, while Jonas sees mainly obstacles. He is very calm and controlled; I speak without thinking.”
Vingegaard used to vomit many times before the start
Vingegaard has previously mentioned that at the beginning of his career, he experienced unbearable stress before a competition. He even vomited many times before the start and quickly lost the joy of racing. “He would often wake up very early and toss and turn in bed, worried about what could go wrong.”
How did she give more self-confidence to Vingegaard? “For example, by renovating our home ourselves. Jonas immediately got scared. ‘Oh no, I’ve never done that before,’ he said. Ended up tearing down walls, installing the kitchen, and even laying the floor.”
“By renovating our home himself, Jonas discovered that he could do more than just ride well. It calmed him down, and he realized, ‘I’ll be fine no matter what happens. If I can’t win races, I can still fall back on something and be a valuable person. And that also removed the pressure.”
“There’s still pressure, but now I realize: if I don’t win, the world won’t end,” says Vingegaard. “Would I have won the Tour without my wife? No. I don’t know who else would have made this change possible. I sought many mental coaches, but their approach didn’t work. Trine did,” concluded Jonas Vingegaard.
