Jonas Vingegaard was given the ultimate stamp of approval this week when cycling's all-time great Eddy Merckx described him as the strongest Grand Tour rider around.

Runner-up to Tadej Pogacar in 2021, Vingegaard was the only rider to challenge the Slovenian prodigy in the high mountains.

In 2022, Vingegaard went one step higher and won the title at altitude, and has proved it to be the case again in 2023 when on Saturday he virtually wrapped-up back-to-back victories.

"Pogacar is still a more complete rider," Merckx told AFP this week. 

"But for the moment, in the high mountains at least, Vingegaard remains the stronger of the two," he said.

There is something special about Vingegaard that rings a bell with Danes and a slowly widening worldwide fan-base.

Described by those who know him best as patient but someone who enjoys order and a set programme, his team Jumbo-Visma established their Tour de France tactics last December and hammered them home to him.

- 'Thrives with pressure' -

"We planned the tactics, concentrating on stage 16 and 17 way back in December. The plan has remained the same and we fine tuned at and spoke about it a lot," Vingegaard revealed after stage 17, where he effectively won this year's Tour de France.

Upon these solid foundations Vingegaard found within him the strength to see off two-time champion Pogacar.

Vingegaard scoffed at Pogacar's celebrations after scampering away to claw back some seconds, and even slowed down on one stage allowing Pogacar to catch him and look him in the eye at the line.

"This Tour isn't going to be won by a few seconds," he said.

Vingegaard is a brilliant downhill rider, and a nerveless one. 

Every corner of his downhill dash on stage 16's time trial was breath-taking to watch.

Fellow Dane Kasper Asgreen showed true affection for Vingegaard after his own stage win for an opposing team.

"What Jonas has done coming here as defending Tour de France champion is a different kind of pressure, but he's thrived with this pressure," said the 28-year-old.

"He seems super confident and relaxed and he's been that way since Bilbao on day one," he said.

His sensational form has, however, invited scepticism.

"We have to be sceptical because of what happened in the past or it will just happen again," he said.

"I wouldn't take anything I wouldn't give my daughter, and I certainly wouldn't give her any drugs," he said.

His family is fundamental to him, kissing his wedding ring as he crossed the line the day he pulverised Pogacar on the Colde Loze.

Vingegaard is married to the marketing manager of his former team, a woman 10 years his senior.

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