‘I don’t think I’ll stay in cycling’ – Jonas Vingegaard reveals no plans for career in sport after retirement

Double Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) has revealed that once his career in cycling is over, unlike many other bike riders – past and present – he currently has no plans to try his hand in a different role in the sport.

As the season ends and a fresh wave of riders retire, future plans are flying back and forth in the peloton, and many soon-to-be-ex-pros have already announced plans to continue as sports directors or coaches.

Amongst them, Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) is already fast-tracking to a new position as Head of Racing with his current team, whilst Elia Viviani (Lotto), still racing round the boards of Gent velodrome just a few days back, was confirmed on Friday as a new Ineos sports director.

Still only 28, Vingegaard is a good few years off needing to come to a decision, but as he told the Midtvest TV channel in a documentary, he’s already begun to make up his mind.

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“I actually don’t think I’ll stay in the cycling industry when I stop. I just think I’ll enjoy being at home with my family and being there for them,” Vingegaard said.

“Other than that, I don’t really know what I want yet, but I’ll figure that out.”

Vingegaard told Midtvest that he had looked at other careers in his youth, which would definitely not have involved racing around half the world on two wheels, either.

“I have always said that I wanted to do something with numbers, probably something in the banking world. I have always been good with numbers,” said Vingegaard.

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A former business school student, Vingegaard is not the only modern-day pro with links to banking. Before he became a fully-fledged amateur racer, Mark Cavendish used to combine working in a bank with riding a bike.

However, quite apart from his interest in mathematics, Vingegaard then realised he had other potential talents and interests, too, which he might have followed had he not been a top bike racer.

“After I grew up and fixed up my own house, I realized that I like crafts more than I actually thought,” Vingegaard said, before agreeing that, “It could very well be” that when he retires, he will pick up some kind of practical trade.

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“Time will tell. I am very fascinated by carpentry,” he said.

Rather than depending on natural gifts to get ahead, though, Vingegaard said he felt innate cycling talent was no automatic guarantee of success, and that self-confidence and self-belief also had a great deal to do with how to make the most progress in the sport.

“I think I would just tell them [future generations of riders] to keep believing. It is not always the biggest talents who get the furthest,” he said in the Midtvest documentary.

“I was not one of them myself, and I have still come a long way. So keep going and have fun with it.”