To those who were wondering, Tadej Pogacar answered bluntly: do not expect to see him on the roads of the Tour of Spain, from August 26 to September 17. “For once, I’ll be on my couch”, slipped the Slovenian on the sidelines of the world cycling championships, organized two weeks earlier in Scotland. If the nugget of the formation UAE Team Emirates has chosen to grant itself a little respite after an already “long” 2023 season, its great rival Jonas Vingegaard, on the other hand, has added the Vuelta to its summer program. “And, of course, I would like to win it,” said the Dane from Jumbo-Visma, who won his second Tour de France title on July 23 by crushing the competition.
Not enough to move Remco Evenepoel, outgoing red jersey and in search of the pass of two on the Spanish roads. “How did I react when I heard he was going to participate? GOOD. Why would I react badly? “Launched the Belgian from Soudal Quick-Step to RTBF on July 28, the day before his victory in the Clasica San Sebastian. On the contrary, then advanced the 2022 world champion, the presence of the double winner of the Grande Boucle will bring “even more spectacle” to a race which already promises to be “very high”.
A good part of the elite of cycling has made an appointment for this 78th edition of the event, which starts with a team time trial of 14.6 kilometers, Saturday in Barcelona (Spain): Geraint Thomas ( Ineos-Grenadiers), yellow jersey 2018 and regular on the podiums on the big tours; Enric Mas (Movistar), second in the Tour of Spain in 2018, 2021 and 2022; João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), third in the Giro d’Italia this year; Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), third in Vuelta last year; and especially Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), triple winner of the Spanish loop (2019-2021), who added the Giro to his list in May.
The winner of the Tour de France, the big favourite?
Inevitably, on paper, the Jumbo-Visma and its Vingegaard-Roglic duo look like scarecrows. “They have the two big favorites, summed up Remco Evenepoel on Belgian Radio-Television. Anyway, the winner of the Tour [de France] will always be seen as the big favorite. According to the words of the performance manager of the Dutch armada, Mathieu Heijboer, in the Wieler Revue, “it is realistic [that the Dane] reaches the same level on the Vuelta [as on the Grande Boucle]”.
Realistic certainly, but without any certainty, concedes the former runner, who develops: given a shorter preparation, “there is a greater risk factor”. Its leader has so far never doubled the three-week events and, in the history of cycling, only three men have offered the Tour de France and the Vuelta in the same year: Jacques Anquetil in 1963 and Bernard Hinault in 1978, when the Spanish loop ran in May, then Christopher Froome in 2017 with the same schedule as today.
It also remains to be seen how the roles will be distributed within the Dutch armada, while officially no hierarchy has been pre-established between its two leaders. The last time they shared the status of leader of the Jumbo was in 2022 on the Tour de France: diminished by a fall in the first stages, Primoz Roglic had seen his hopes of yellow fly away prematurely and was transformed into a luxury lieutenant for the Dane – especially during the masterpiece of Granon, July 13 – before forfeiting a few days later.
This year, if Jonas Vingegaard, 26, flew over the Grande Boucle – ahead of Tadej Pogacar by more than 7 minutes in the general classification – his eldest, 33, can boast of having won all the races in which he is. t has lined up since the resumption of its season – Tirreno-Adriatico, Tour of Catalonia, Tour of Italy and Tour of Burgos, on August 19. And if the two men have announced that they will appear at the start of the Vuelta to win as a team – and at the same time make their formation the first to win the three grand tours in the same season – each hopes rally Madrid well with the red jersey.
But the road to the Spanish capital is long, as is the list of their adversaries, who secretly hope that what makes the Jumbo-Visma strong on paper does not turn out to be its weakness in the end.
