MADRID, 28 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The duel between Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), who will be seeking his third Tour de France and an unusual double, and Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), who faces the race with many doubts about his physical condition, will be the focus of this edition of the Tour de France in which Spain hopes to have a representative on the podium for the first time in the last nine years.
The Slovenian wants revenge after the last two editions in which the Dane took the victory, and, incidentally, conquer the Giro-Tour double that no one has achieved before in this 21st century and whose last protagonist was the Italian Marco Pantani in 1998. Pogacar arrives after sweeping the Giro d’Italia, in which he dominated the general classification and won six stages, and “in better physical condition” than he expected.
The winner in 2020 and 2021 will be surrounded by a great team, including the British Adam Yates, podium finisher last year and winner of the Tour of Switzerland, the Portuguese Joao Almeida, second in the Swiss race and always combative in the grand tours. , and the young Spaniard Juan Ayuso, who will debut in the Tour without many expectations, since he starts as a luxury teammate for his leader.
Along with them, the also Spanish Marc Soler, the Frenchman Pavel Sivakov, the Belgian Tim Wellens and the German Nils Politt, will complete a very powerful group that will try to accompany Pogacar against the power of Visma which, as usual, also presents a very powerful combination to discuss the hegemony of the race to the UAE.
The Dutch team is arriving with the question mark over the condition of Jonas Vingegaard, who has not competed since early April following his serious fall in the Tour of the Basque Country, which caused several rib fractures and a pneumothorax.
The current double winner of the ‘Grande Boucle’ will be surrounded by cyclists of the highest level such as the versatile Belgian Wout Van Aert or the American Matteo Jorgenson, who finished second overall in the Critérium du Dauphiné exhibiting a very high level, and who makes him pose as a candidate for the final podium, as well as as the most faithful gregarious for Vingegaard. The Belgian Tiejs Benoot, the Slovenian Jan Tratnik, the Frenchman Cristophe Laporte and the Dutch Wilco Kelderman complete the ‘8’.
And the possible wear and tear of Pogacar and the unknown about Vingegaard raises the hopes of the rest, led by the powerful INEOS, led in theory by the Spaniard Carlos Rodríguez, fifth placed last year in an edition in which he shone and who will be accompanied by two winners of the French race such as the Colombian Egan Bernal, winner in 2019, or the Welshman Geraint Thomas, winner in 2018, who will constitute a trio of candidates to finish on the final podium in Nice, which will replace Paris as the goal, immersed in the Olympic Games.
The group of favourites for victory also includes Slovenian Primoz Roglic (Bora Hansgrohe), who arrives after winning the Critérium du Dauphiné a few weeks ago, and who was second in the 2020 edition, and Belgian Remco Evenepoel (Soudal QuickStep), who will make his first appearance in the Tour without many expectations after also being involved in the crash of the ‘Itzulia’.
Apart from Carlos Rodríguez, among the Spanish candidates to have a good result in the general classification we must always count on Enric Mas (Movistar Team), who in 2023 had to say goodbye very soon due to a fall and who has finished twice among the ten best of the French race. The Spaniard will need to be at his best, something he has not achieved this season, and he will have the thriving Oier Lazkano at his side, who showed a great level of form in the Dauphiné.
SEVERAL OPTIONS FOR A SPANISH VICTORY
The Spanish options for victory also include Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), two-time winner of a stage, Mikel Landa (Soudal QuickStep), who given the possibility that Evenepoel does not compete in the general classification could shine in the mountain days, or Jesús Herrada (Cofidis), who is also pursuing a stage win in the Tour, a mission already achieved by his teammate Ion Izagirre on two occasions, one of them last year when national cycling had three wins (Rodríguez and Bilbao), which does not It’s been happening since 2003.
It will be a ‘Grande Boucle’ as always of a high level with other recognized names such as the Dutch Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin Deceuninck), the British Simon Yates (AlUla Jayco), the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz (EF-EasyPost) or the Frenchman Romain Bardet (DSM).
We cannot forget the presence of Mark Cavendish (Astana), who with 33 stage victories in the Tour, will seek to finally break the tie with Eddy Merckx, and become the cyclist with the most victories in the ‘Grande Boucle’, although at the finish he will have rivals such as Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin Deceunink), the Dane Mads Pedersen (Lidl Trek) or the Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen (DSM).
2024-06-28 15:45:16
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