An intriguing battle for yellow incomingpublished at 11:14
Two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard has openly said he would have liked another three weeks or so to prepare for his defence of the Tour de France.
It is going to be intriguing to see what sort of shape he is in?
A harrowing crash while competing in April in northern Spain had put the Dane’s participation in serious doubt.
The 27-year-old is in Florence, Italy, for the Grand Depart, but has not raced since his accident.
After colliding with rocks at high speed, Vingegaard’s injuries from the crash at the Itzulia Basque country were significant – fractured ribs, a broken collarbone and a collapsed and bruised lung.
Around 12 months ago Tadej Pogacar, likely to be his main rival for the Tour (again) came into the race having missed a significant block of training himself and looked well under cooked as he was well beaten.
However, despite having recently had covid, he reckons he’s in his best shape ever on a bike. A rather ominous bit of news for the rest of the peloton.
Oh and don’t forget that Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel are also expected to be in the mix.
An absolutely intriguing battle for yellow coming up.