The gloves are not quite off, but punches are being thrown with increasing frequency at the Tour de France. The defending champion, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), declared his position at the start of the race: three months on from his horror crash, he was “lucky to be here”, and when he lost time on stage four, it was classified as a positive result – “I expected to be 3-0 down,” he remarked.
References to his several broken bones and six weeks of preparation have been constant utterances from the usually shy Dane in the first race’s first-half, a slow indoctrination to ensure that the narrative is on his recovery, and to place the pressure firmly at the cleats of his great challenger, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). The man who’s won the last two Tours, goes the message, is the underdog. Indeed, UAE have been nodding along in agreement; the messaging has cut through.
