Jonas Vingegaard: Jonas Vingegaard and the great leap forward of O Gran Camiño cycling | Cycling

All roads lead to Rome, the saying goes, and Ezequiel Mosquera, who is Galician and organizes O Gran Camiño, a cycling race that always revolves around Santiago, corrects him. “All roads come from Paris, like children and their storks,” he says. “Or from Rome, even.” Furthermore, they could add, they even come from Copenhagen, and then talk about Jonas Vingegaard, the Dane who won the last two Tours, and also the last O Gran Camiño, frost, snow, rain and wind in Galicia in February 2023, and He liked the experience so much, he really enjoyed it, that on Sunday, after winning the last stage, a time trial, in the Plaza del Obradoiro he promised: “Next year I will return.”

A man of his word, Vingegaard returned, and he did not return alone. Following his trail, and the idea that to get to Paris in yellow you have to detour through Santiago, and his serious word, other great cyclists signed up for the Galician race, four stages, one in each province, and they will compete with him Starting today, in the time trial that passes through the Tower of Hercules, and ascends to the lighthouse, covers A Coruña for 14.8 kilometers. Behind him is the Mount of San Pedro in Visma, and the name, which has nothing to do with it, coincides with that of the sponsor who has replaced Jumbo in the Dane’s jersey. Another Galician nod, in case it was needed, for the winner of the Tour.

Against Vingegaard already in February some of his toughest enemies in the July Tour: the Ineos, with Carlos Rodríguez, the Spaniard from whom so much is expected in the Tour, and Egan Bernal; the EF of Richard Carapaz, already so fit in the Tour Colombia, and Rigo Urán, on his farewell tour, and the Groupama of David Gaudu, the last great French hope, and the bustling climber Lenny Martínez.

“I have had a very good winter,” says Vingegaard in A Coruña, who has changed his file in the federation records, and is now Vingegaard Hansen, to add to his the surname of Trine, his wife and mother of his daughter, Frida, and, strangely enough for him, he smiles. “I have spent three weeks focused on altitude, on Teide, I am in top shape and I am happy to return here, my first race of the year. I had a great time last year, all the memories are good [ganó todas las etapas: la competencia no era tan fuerte], despite the snow and cold, and I hope to finish the race full of good moments again. They announce wind, and it is my element. And it is so well organized…”

For the fans, 2024 will be a poor year in terms of crossings of the best in racing. Before the Tour Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar, also winner of two Tours, and second after the Dane the last two years, will not meet in any race. The Slovenian, who will compete in the Giro for the first time, will not meet anyone, while Vingegaard will meet Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel only in the Tour of the Basque Country, in April, and in the Dauphiné, in June. “It will be curious to have Roglic as a rival,” says Vingegaard, whose last race in 2023 was a Vuelta in which he, Kuss and Roglic completely dominated the Jumbo. “We have been on the same team for five years, and always very united. Now we will have to fight among ourselves for victory.”

With Vingegaard as the locomotive, the race, which is only three years old, has taken a great leap, just as Mosquera wanted, who as an organizer is as ambitious, imaginative and bold as he was as a cyclist, and is moved by a certain sense and need for transcendence, and he is so concerned about finding attractive routes with weight in Galician traditions and culture – this year, the last stage ends on Mount Aloia, next to Tui, and the Miño below, and Portugal, and the memory of the ancient Volta a Galiza, Pino, Marcos Serrano and other heroes—, as in new forms of television broadcasting, with drones and with information on temperatures, winds and others up to the second and virtual reality for ascents to the ports.

The first year, Mosquera recalled, even happier than Vingegaard, was that of Alejandro Valverde and Igor Arrieta, almost a test of walking at home; the second, that of the Jumbo festival and the beginning of international appeal. “This year we have climbed three steps at once on the path to the great event we want to be,” he says. “The sociology and culture of cycling have changed. It is no longer just the sport of those who wanted to stop being poor, now it is the sport of the wealthy classes as well. Its magic and its history have conquered them. And we have the ambition to continue growing, to win days, to gain importance.” Mosquera, an independent organizer, foreign to the emporiums of ASO (Tour and Vuelta, and several other races) and RCS (Giro and its classics), speaks so animatedly that he even becomes a little overwhelmed, vertigo, thinking about the growth of his invention, that, apart from the loyalty of the best cyclist of the moment, it has achieved another impossible, the sponsorship of Zara, which will make the jerseys of the best: it is the first sporting incursion, beyond the equestrian grand prix, of the largest textile company in the world, and Galician, who supports the growth trajectory outlined by Mosquera, “We will have to live up to it: VIP area, advertising elements… Ufff.”