With an inaugural Giro d’Italia victory less than a week in the rear view mirror and Tadej Pogačar now switching focus to a third Tour de France win, UAE Team Emirates team manager Joxean Matxin has labelled rival Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) as the favourite to win the Yellow Jersey in July.
The Danish two-time Tour winner is on the path to recovery after a major crash at the Tour of the Basque Country in April left him with a lung injury and several broken bones.
Matxin reflected on the 2023 season, when Pogačar had been the one to have a severe spring crash, breaking his wrist at Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
"That Vingegaard crashed heavily in the Tour of the Basque Country? Last year, Tadej crashed 3 weeks further in April and was in Vingegaard's slipstream until the Tour time trial (stage 16)," Matxin said, as reported by Sporza.
"Vingegaard has been training at altitude for weeks, he is the big favourite," he added.
The Spaniard seemed keen to take the pressure off Pogačar during his historic Giro-Tour double attempt, pointing out the energy the Slovenian expended during his triumph in Italy.
“Of course Tadej was also tired after the Giro…Tadej has had days when he burned 8,000 calories, his wattages were also very high."
Although Pogačar won the race by almost ten minutes ahead of Bora-Hansgrohe’s Daniel Martinez, Matxin assured that tactically the aim in Italy was to race as “economically” as possible with one eye on July.
"He didn't pull off an 80km solo like he did in Strade Bianche. And Tadej never had to fight for his position in the peloton thanks to the perfect work of his teammates," Matxin said.
Having beaten Pogačar in the last two Tours de France, Vingegaard is the opponent that UAE Team Emirates appear most concerned about, but Matxin also named Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick-Step), Primoz Roglic and Alexandr Vlasov (both Bora-Hansgrohe) as leading favourites for the Tour de France.
All three are set to compete in the Critérium du Dauphiné as preparation for the Tour, with Evenepoel and Roglic on their own comeback trails after falling victim to the same crash as Vingegaard in April. Meanwhile Pogačar is resting before heading to an altitude camp in the French Alps to fine tune his form.
Vingegaard has already been training at altitude but will not be on the start line to race the Dauphiné. Visma - Lease a Bike have taken a flexible and conservative approach to the reigning Tour de France champion’s recovery.
Vingegaard’s coach, Tim Heemskerk, told the Radio Cycling podcast that “the plan for the next four weeks is decided on a day-by-day process. What he’s doing today will make tomorrow’s training. If I see he’s improving, he can do a bit more tomorrow, respecting the recovery of course. We are not forcing anything.”
Grand Tour Treble
If Tadej Pogačar were to win the Tour de France in seven weeks’ time, he would become the first rider to complete the Giro-Tour double since Marco Pantani in 1998.
The World Championships in Switzerland later on in the season is another big ambition of Pogačar's, bit for a rider with a seemingly endless appetite for winning the temptation would surely be too much to prevent him from going for an unprecedented grand tour treble. No rider has ever won the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España in the same season.
Although this achievement would eclipse everything that has preceded it in Pogačar’s illustrious career so far, Matxin denied the possibility.
"Winning the three Grand Tours in the same year is great for the history books, but that is not the case this year…the Vuelta was never on Pogačar's schedule."
