Gauthier Delomez / Photo credits: Thomas SAMSON / AFP
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1:56 p.m., July 01, 2023
Who to succeed Dane Jonas Vingegaard? It is this Saturday that 176 riders – including last year’s winner – take the start of the Tour de France 2023 from Bilbao, Spain. A very mountainous Grande Boucle this year, according to competition director Christian Prudhomme, with no less than eight mountain stages. According to Richard Virenque, Europe 1 consultant for the Grande Boucle, two cyclists are leaving with a head start on the competition: the defending champion Jonas Vingegaard (UAE) and the double Slovenian winner (2020 and 2021), Tadej Pogacar ( Jumbo-Visma).
Vingegaard “is here to win”
Whoever was surprised last summer by winning his first Tour de France has every chance of repeating his performance, analyzes Richard Virenque. “I think he is capable of it, he showed us what he was made of since the start of the season,” said the former French cyclist. “In all the races he participates in, he is there to win. He had a very studious winter and he is setting out to try to win a second Tour de France.”
In the absence of Slovenian Primoz Roglic, winner of the Giro, the Dane will face another Slovenian rival, Tadej Pogacar. The latter “won the Tour before (Vingegaard), he was his number 1 opponent. There will be a real rivalry between these two men”, warns the ex-climber tricolor, remembering the scenario of the edition former. “Pogacar had lost the Tour last year on an error, he had forgotten to eat and he had had a craving. That day, Vingegaard had taken the yellow tunic and had not let go until in Paris. I believe that these two men will run behind each other, there will be a real duel.”
The UAE and Jumbo-Visma teams will surrender “blow for blow”
Beyond a rivalry between two riders, it will be a direct confrontation between two teams, the Jumbo-Visma of Vingegaard and UAE Emirates of Pogacar. “These big formations will have control over the general classification. But we remember that the Jumbo team is not only counting on the yellow jersey, but also the green jersey, so it is running for several classifications. It is not the case of the Pogacar team which will run only for the win”, notes Richard Virenque.
And for that, the UAE training can capitalize on a very mountainous Tour de France, since it has runners who specialize in the summits. “The Pogacar team will be advantaged, but Vingegaard also has the size of the climber, so he will need teammates” up to the task, nuance the consultant from Europe 1, also underlining the strategy of the other formations. “There is the agreement of the adversaries with other teams. Some can ally themselves to beat others. But in any case, two formations will be observed and it will be blow for blow”, certifies the former French runner.
A potential Egan Bernal surprise?
In addition to the two big favorites of the Tour de France, Richard Virenque shines the spotlight on the winner of the 2019 edition, the Colombian Egan Bernal (Ineos), who will return after his serious accident at the start of the 2022 season. The climber could shoot upwards its formation, orphan of its leader Geraint Thomas who chose to ignore after his second place in the last Giro.
The Colombian rider could “orchestrate” the duel between Vingegaard and Pogacar, according to Richard Virenque. “We remember that he had dispossessed a certain Julian Alaphilippe to win the Tour. He is coming back from falls. Will he be able to regain the level he had known before?” Asks the consultant from Europe 1, which also does not forget the French chances on this Grande Boucle. Julian Alaphilippe, David Gaudu or even Thibaut Pinot, who will compete in his last stages this summer, have the means to shine according to the former tricolor rider.