Jonas Vingegaard ready to defend his Tour de France title In what form will his great adversary Tadej Pogacar start?
A good three weeks before the start of the Tour de France, last year’s winner Jonas Vingegaard had an impressive dress rehearsal with overall victory in the difficult Critérium du Dauphiné.
With second place on the eighth and final stage over 152.8 kilometers from Le-Pont-de-Claix to Grenoble, the Danish professional cyclist couldn’t take first place behind Italian escape Giulio Ciccone.
Biggest lead in 30 years
At the end of the tour, Vingegaard was 2:23 minutes ahead of Adam Yates from Great Britain. This was the largest lead at the Dauphiné since Switzerland’s Laurent Dufaux 30 years ago.
“I’m happy to have won the race. It’s a big thing for me. It was surprising that the time gaps were so big, but I’m in good shape,” said Vingegaard after his eleventh win of the season, adding: “A relax for a few days, then the final preparation for the Tour de France begins. I still have to work a bit, but not much.”
In any case, the Dane seems well prepared for the eagerly awaited duel with two-time Tour champion Tadej Pogacar from Slovenia. Vingegaard had won the Tour of France for the first time last year, dethroning his great adversary.
Buchmann ends up in 19th place
In March, Vingegaard was clearly defeated by Pogacar on the Paris-Nice tour. However, the Slovenian suffered a scaphoid fracture in his left hand in a fall during the spring classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège at the end of April and has not competed since. Pogacar will only contest the Slovenian championship in preparation for the Tour of France, which begins on July 1st.
At the end of the Dauphiné tour, Emanuel Buchmann, who was fourth in the tour and was left behind on the penultimate mountain, also played no role. With 19th place in the overall standings, the German was unable to repeat his best result from 2019 (third). So it remains questionable whether he will be nominated by his Bora-hansgrohe team for the highlight of the season. The Australian Jai Hindley, who won the Giro in 2022, is planned to be the captain. In the Dauphiné, Hindley finished fourth overall.