An iconic photo shoot done by Specialized showing the 'class if 2024'... Jai Hindley 🇦🇺 BOH Lotte Kopecky 🇧🇪 SDW Primož Roglič 🇸🇮 BOH Demi Vollering 🇳🇱 SDW Remco Evenepoel 🇧🇪 SOQ Julian Alaphilippe 🇫🇷 SOQ Lorena Wiebes 🇳🇱 SDW Kasper Asgreen 🇩🇰 SOQ
Alberto Contador on Remco Evenepoel's Tour de France, and Tadej Pogacar's possible crazy challenge: "If Pogacar wins the Giro and the Tour, he will go for the triple in the Vuelta"
CyclingTuesday, 23 January 2024 at 08:54
Alberto Contador has big dreams of what the 2024 season could look like. He tells his thoughts on the favourites for the Tour de France, opinion on Remco Evenepoel's chances and also launches a slight challenge for Tadej Pogacar to ride all three Grand Tours.
"Tadej Pogacar should just go for the triple and also ride the Vuelta! He can do something special and excel in a Grand Tour," Contador said in the Velofillies podcast. "The climbs in the Giro are different from the Tour and invite different tactics. I don't think the combination is ideal as preparation for the Tour, but it shouldn't be too big a problem." The Slovenian will let go of the spring classics so as to focus on the double Grand Tour attempt he will be doing in the summer.
Whilst in the Giro d'Italia he leads the team solo, and is at the time the ultimate favourite on paper, at the Tour de France he will be one of four leaders for UAE Team Emirates, who will be looking to dislodge Team Visma | Lease a Bike, but also face the growing threat which is BORA - hansgrohe.
"He doesn't race much before the Giro and can rest afterwards. But I think Jonas Vingegaard is that one name for top favorite status," Contador still believes." Those teams (UAE Team Emirates and Team Visma | Lease a Bike, ed.) have an advantage." He brings out the obvious wildcard in Remco Evenepoel as well, who is not rated as high, but will certainly make headlines regardless of how his campaign will take place. "But Remco will provide the spectacle anyway. If he doesn't win this year, he will probably win in the future."
Being a Spaniard, he was also asked about the possible faith of the Vuelta a España. Jonas Vingegaard is the only rider from the main group of Grand Tour specialists who has declared his interest in the Spanish Grand Tour, but that does not mean he will be the only one. "Maybe Primoz Roglic wants that fourth overall victory and perhaps Vingegaard will also participate again."
The former triple Grand Tour winner concluded with an interesting declaration, an ambitious regarding Tadej Pogacar: "If Pogacar wins the Giro and the Tour, he will go for the triple in the Vuelta, I think."
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