This feature originally appeared in the 29 June 2023 issue of Cycling Weekly magazine.
The northernmost corner of Denmark at the top of the Jutland Peninsula is an exposed, windswept and unforgiving landscape. Surrounding the harbours of the Thy district - which were once used as staging posts for Viking raids across Europe in the 9th and 10th centuries - are vast plains, without a knoll, hill nor mountain in sight.
As the local people will tell you, to be a cyclist in the area means first knowing how to fight against the wind. Local riders simply don’t have the luxury of long, warm drawn out evenings that many of their contemporaries in Europe’s southern climes enjoy.
Perhaps that’s why a young Jonas Vingegaard - who’d go on to win the 2022 Tour de France - would often require a gentle nudge to get out of the house and out on the road with his friends, Karsten Mikkelsen and Jesper Odgaard, to train.
