(Paris) Jonas Vingegaard will defend his crown well against Tadej Pogacar: after weeks of suspense, the outgoing double winner received the green light on Thursday to start the Tour de France on June 29 in Florence, just like Wout Van Aert, another big accident of the spring.
This was the most anticipated news ahead of the Grande Boucle. It came at lunchtime on Thursday in the form of a press release from the Visma-Lease a bike team formalizing the names of the eight riders who will be racing on the Tour roads with their new “Renaissance” jersey.
In recent days, optimism was in order for Vingegaard and Van Aert who had notably published on social networks a group photo with all the expected runners, on the heights of Tignes, where they are on an altitude course for prepare to defend their title.
However, the two men, especially Vingegaard, have come a long way and their state of form will be scrutinized day after day until the arrival scheduled for July 21 in Nice.
“Jonas is coming back from a serious injury. Obviously, we don’t know how far he can go. We remain cautious, because he has not yet been able to do a race and his preparation has been anything but ideal,” commented sports director Merjin Zeeman, emphasizing the Dane’s “champion” qualities, as much on the both physically and mentally.
At the beginning of April, the two-time winner of the Tour experienced the worst accident of his career during a massive and ultra-violent road trip during the Tour of the Basque Country. Victim of broken collarbones and several ribs, a pneumothorax and a pulmonary contusion, he spent twelve days in hospital and only got back on a bike on May 7.
Since then, he has been in reconstruction, following training courses in Mallorca, then in Tignes.
“I can’t wait to start the Tour. The last few months have not been easy, but I thank my family and the Visma-Lease a bike team for their unfailing support. We worked together for this moment, I feel good and very motivated,” Vingegaard, 27, said in a team statement.
But when he sets off in ten days from Florence, he will not have participated in a race for three months, while Tadej Pogacar has in the meantime flown through the Tour of Italy and the two other big stars involved in the fall , Primo Roglic and Remco Evenepoel, were able to resume competition at the Critérium du Dauphiné.
“We are obviously delighted that he is at the start,” reacted to AFP the director of the Tour, Christian Prudhomme, who learned the news via a text message from the Dane’s wife, pregnant with their second child, saying that it will be “a very special Tour for Jonas.”
But, adds the Tour director, “there is still a question mark over his physical condition. We saw that with a less serious injury last year, Pogacar was not quite himself.
The history of Pogacar, victim of a broken wrist in April before exploding in the last week of the 2023 Tour, does not necessarily encourage optimism. To the point that some media have speculated on the fact that the Dane could transform into a luxury servant for Matteo Jorgenson, the winner of Paris-Nice and second in the Dauphiné.
“You are all completely crazy”, reacted on his social networks the American, determined to remain in his role of lieutenant also alongside his compatriot Sepp Kuss, the Frenchman Christophe Laporte, the Slovenian Jan Tratnik, the Dutchman Wilco Kelderman and by Belgian Tiesj Benoot.
Wout Van Aert will also be there and seems to be a little ahead of Vingegaard. The Belgian returned to competition in mid-May at the Tour of Norway after eight weeks of absence following his fall in Across Flanders on March 27 where he suffered fractures to his collarbone, sternum and seven ribs.
The Tour de France “was not on the program” this year, recalled the winner of nine stages on the Grande Boucle. “But, given the developments of recent weeks, I really wanted it and the team approved,” added the 29-year-old Belgian who will next aim for a medal at the Paris Olympics (July 26-August 11). .
