Tadej Pogacar, vying for rare Giro, Tour de France double, is man to beat

Tadej Pogacar will be the man to beat at the Tour de France, which he enters riding a wave of exceptional results this season, while main rival, defending champion Jonas Vingegaard, starts the event having just recovered from serious injuries.

Slovenia’s Pogacar, whose domination of the Tour ended when Vingegaard burst into the limelight, won the Giro d’Italia by an impressive margin.

The UAE Emirates leader is now looking to become the first rider to claim a Giro/Tour double since Marco Pantani in 1998.

This season so far, Pogacar has won the Liege-Bastogne-Liege Monument classic, the Tour of Catalunya and the Strade Bianche one-day race, basically taking victory in all the races he started apart from Milan-Sanremo, in which he finished third.

The 25-year-old two-time Tour de France champion will also be backed by a formidable team featuring climbers Adam Yates, Pavel Sivakov, Joao Almeida, Marc Soler and Juan Ayuso.

Yellow Jersey and Tour de France overall winner Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard (centre) of team Jumbo-Visma, second-placed Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar (left) of team UAE Team Emirates and third-placed British rider Adam Yates of team UAE Team Emirates on the podium after the 21st and final stage of the Tour de France 2023 from Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines to Paris Champs-Elysee, France. 23 July 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE/Martin Divisek)

No preparation

Vingegaard, instead, has had no competitive preparation and his team has been hit by the late withdrawal of his mountain lieutenant, Sepp Kuss, as the Vuelta a España champion continues to recover from a Covod infection.

Danish Vingegaard, who won the last two editions of the Tour, suffered fractures to his collarbone and rib and a collapsed lung in a crash at the Tour of the Basque Country less than three months ago, and has not raced since.

“Being fit, is, of course something else than being in shape or competitive,” said his Visma-Lease a Bike Sports Director Merijn Zeeman.

“In any case, Jonas is fit. He really worked extremely hard.”

The main concern for Vingegaard is that he will need to be competitive from the very outset of the race.

Hilly terrain

The Tour will be off to an explosive start, with seven categorised climbs in the first stage of the three-week event as the peloton leaves Italy for France in the fourth stage, where the high mountain climbs begin.

The first three stages will be on hilly terrain that look to be treacherous.

“The Tour will be over in three or four days,” Groupama-FDJ manager Marc Madiot predicted, suggesting an early break by Pogacar to pre-empt any challenges.

“Pogacar will break things apart and blow out Vingegaard. In his place, that’s what I’d do to be sure he doesn’t get back on top form.”

Behind the duo, three-time Vuelta champion Primoz Roglic, who has left Vingegaard's team to join Bora-Hansgrohe, will be hoping to get to the podium for the second time after fellow Slovenian, Pogacar, beat him in the final time trial.

Belgian prodigy Remco Evenepoel, 24, will make his Tour de France debut, also looking to secure a podium spot after winning the Tour of Spain in 2022.

The race starts from Florence on Saturday and, for the first time, will not end in Paris. The Tour's final time trial will be held between Monaco and Nice as the French capital gears up for the 26 July to 11 August Olympics.

Briton Mark Cavendish will be one of the main attractions as he bids to beat his record of 34 stage wins that he shares with Belgian great Eddy Merckx, delaying a decision to retire after a crash in last year's Tour for a final season.

Polka Dot Jersey best climber Italian rider Giulio Ciccone of team Lidl-Trek rides past the Arc de Triomphe during the 21st and final stage of the Tour de France 2023 from Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines to Paris Champs-Elysee, France. 23 July 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE/Christophe Petit Tesson)

‘Control room’ controversy

The International Cycling Union (UCI) is investigating the proposed use by Visma-Lease a Bike, the team of defending Tour de France champion Vingegaard, of a ‘control room’ from which live data would help their riders in this year's race.

“The UCI is informed of the recent announcement concerning the use of a ‘control room’ by ... Team Visma-Lease a Bike,” the UCI said in a statement.

“We are currently carrying out verifications to ensure that the set-up put in place is compliant with the regulatory framework ... notably regarding the capture and transmission of data as outlined in Article 1.3.006b is of the UCI regulations.”

The UCI regulations state that “the authorised capturing and transmitting of data as provided under this article shall not enable a rider to view data of another rider.

“Likewise, teams shall only access data of their riders, where such transmission is authorised, unless information pertaining to riders of other teams is publicly available.”

Earlier the Dutch outfit said they were setting up an “innovative Control Room, a van filled with state-of-the-art technology and equipment that will act as a central collection point of real-time data during the Tour de France.

“We are very happy that we were able to develop the Control Room ... which allows us to collect and analyse even more live data and get a better overview of the race,” the team's head of performance Mathieu Heijboer said.

“This will enable us to support the coaches in the car and help them make the best possible tactical decisions faster.”

The Tour starts from Florence on Saturday, 29 June. DM