He overturned the Tour de France on the merciless slopes of the Col du Granon.
Tadej Pogacar's runner-up a year ago, Jonas Vingegaard won the first stage of his career on Wednesday in the Alps after an impressive show of force and stripping the Slovenian of his leader's outfit.
But if we wonder if the rider of the Jumbo-Visma has the capacity to hold his tunic all the way to Paris to win his first Grande Boucle, another question arises in our French minds: how to pronounce the name of the Danish?
Spontaneously, and with a hexagonal accent, one would be tempted to drop a Vine-gueu-garde to challenge the slender Scandinavian.
Except, of course, that's irrelevant.
Let's skip his first name, which should be pronounced "Yo-Nass" to focus on the surname of the new leader of the general classification of the Tour.
For this we contacted three Franco-Danish translators based in France, Alex Fouillet, Lis Overby and Michel Qvistgaard.
Cut all suspense, you have to pronounce phonetically to have the best chance of getting it right: “Ving-gueu-gow-r”.
Let's start with the first part of the person's surname.
"Vinge" means "wing" in Danish, the resemblance to the English "wing" is obvious.
"But you have to pronounce the V well and especially the g at the end of the syllable", insists Michel Qvistgaard, who concedes the unaffordable aspect of the thing for ears not accustomed to Danish.
For the second part of the name, the ge must say "gueu", but most of the difficulty for French speakers lies in the last syllable: "gaard".
"The aa must be pronounced o, as in skin", describes Alex Fouillet.
“Be careful, the d is silent,” insist Lis Overby and Michel Qvistgaard.
Distrust of the "r" on the other hand, which must be "clear, but very brief", continues the latter.
this "gow-r" is also pronounced by accentuating the syllable with a tonic accent, therefore by insisting on it when speaking.
Let's take it all back: it is appropriate to call the current leader of the Tour de France Jonas Vingegaard, "Yonass Ving-gue-gow-r".
Not easy?
If he continues his momentum in this Grande Boucle, will we have to get used to it?
