Head of UAE wants Jonas Vingegaard at Tour de France to battle Tadej Pogacar: "There is an undeniable rivalry"

The 2024 season began in the most exciting way possible. Cycling fans were looking forward to a Tour de France where the 'Big Four' would meet: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel. However, a crash in the Itzulia Basque Country involving the latter three left Evenepoel's and especially Vingegaard's hopes all but ruined.

In an interview with AS, Joxean Fernández Matxín, director of Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates, talks precisely about his Slovenian star's rivalry with Visma - Lease a Bike, and how much he hopes that, despite Vingegaard beating him in the last two editions of the Grande Boucle, the Danish rider can arrive in top condition at the start of the race.

"I want this one. It would be the nicest way (to race) for everyone," Matxín tells. "When a rider who has won the last two years is in the race, there is an undeniable rivalry. When I was in the hospital, I went to see Jonas Vingegaard and also conveyed that to him. I told him that I hoped and expected that we would see each other at the Tour."

Regarding the fall, Matxín took the opportunity to explain that rivalries are always sporting, and that in such delicate moments as the one suffered by Vingegaard in the Basque Country is when we have to help each other as colleagues: "The idea is to show that although we are sporting rivals, in the most complicated moments is when we must all be together. You never want a fall and one as serious as the one in Itzulia is unpleasant for everyone".

For now, Jonas Vingegaard has been recovering since April 16, when he left the hospital in Vitoria where he was admitted after his accident. So far, no one at Visma has confirmed either his presence or his absence ahead of the Tour de France that will start in less than two months, on June 29.