Jonas Vingegaard is aiming for his third tour victory in Florence despite serious injuries.
Photo: imago/Belgian
The crowd for the yellow jersey of the Tour de France has rarely been as great as at the beginning of its 111th edition. The two-time winner of the Tour of France, Tadej Pogačar, not only wants to take his third overall victory, but – after winning the Giro d’Italia – also wants to add the additional “double” to it. Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard would also like to win a third time. But at least before the start this Saturday in Florence it looks like it could be more than the usual duel.
Primož Roglič has never won the tour. In 2020, the Slovenian was close before his compatriot Pogačar defeated him. In the meantime, Roglič has enjoyed himself on tours of Spain and Italy. Belgium’s 24-year-old talent Remco Evenepoel also showed with his victory at the Vuelta 2022 that he has mastered the Grand Tour business at a young age. The “Big Four” of the “Grand Tours” are now all meeting directly for the first time, which led to a lot of tongue-clicking among fans and experts.
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Rarely, however, have the top favorites of the Tour of France started the race in such poor condition. “Nobody would even bet money on third place for Jonas,” said Vingegaard’s teammate Tiesj Benoot. After his serious fall on the Tour of the Basque Country at the beginning of April with fractures to his collarbone and several ribs as well as a bruised lung, he is very impressed by his captain’s determination to get back quickly. But he also sees that Vingegaard is still nowhere near the form he won last year. The Dane himself sees it similarly. “For me, it’s a great success to be here at the start,” he said – and recapitulated his suffering: “I lay in bed for almost two weeks, which is not good for any body. The muscles were broken down. I had to win it back first. Nobody can tell me exactly what consequences the injuries will have in the long term.
Someone still spoke up: Four-time tour winner Chris Froome remembered the bruised lung he suffered when he fell in 2019: “Every breath I took hurt for months.” The Brit came back, but never reached his old performance level again. Now he wasn’t even nominated for the tour by his team out of mercy.
Roglič and Evenepoel were less hit by the mass fall in the Basque Country. But the Belgian also broke his collarbone. As soon as he was back – with a visible lack of fitness during the Dauphiné Tour – he caught a cold shortly before the start of the tour. This also cost one or two training sessions. Evenepoel formulated his goals quite defensively for his standards: “A daily win and the top 5”.
Roglič, captain of the racing team with a German license that was restructured from the sponsors Red Bull and Bora, returned from the Basque Country without any problems. But he also suffered a setback in preparation for the tour: the fact that Matteo Jorgenson ran away from him on the last day of the Dauphiné Tour was not a good omen. The American is now Team Visma’s first replacement if Vingegaard’s form is not sufficient to fight for the overall ranking.
Even Tadej Pogačar, the high-flyer of the season so far, had to cope with a mishap in his double attempt. In terms of strength, he stated that he was in “the best shape” of his life, even “better than at the Giro.” He won it by almost ten minutes. However, a week ago he contracted Covid and spent a few days in isolation. The old scourge of Corona also seems to be back. Because of a Covid illness, Vingegaard’s noble helper Sepp Kuss, Vuelta winner in 2023, also canceled his start.
With all these malaise, the Renaissance author Giovanni Boccaccio comes to mind. In his volume of novellas “Decameron” he brings together people in a country house near Florence who are fleeing the plague and passing the time with gruesome stories. The start of the tour now takes place in Florence, of all places. Another bad omen.
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