"I have to be better than I was 2 years ago" - Jonas VIngegaard on beating Pogacar in the Dauphiné and Tour de France

Jonas Vingegaard's return to competition is imminent. The Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider is taking on the Criterium du Dauphiné, where he's won in the past, and is ready to take on Tadej Pogacar after three months in the sidelines. The Dane is set to be the main rival of the World Champion in what is a mammoth task: Win the Tour de France.

The Dane will face Tadej Pogacar twice. The Visma - Lease a Bike leader has not faced his arch-rival since the last Grande Boucle in the summer of 2024. After a difficult start to the season, in which he suffered a concussion at Paris-Nice which ended his spring calendar, he has focused on training and getting back to his level before returning to racing.

Speaking to Eurosport, Jonas Vingegaard spoke about these upcoming targets, knowing that he and Pogacar will be the main protagonists throughout:

"I have always enjoyed this process of reaching the highest possible level for the Tour de France. The Tour is always the big goal and I love working hard in training camp," Vingegaard said of his preparation in Dauphiné. He has spent time in Sierra Nevada with his Visma teammates, but he was not the only one. Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and several others spent a large portion of May in the area.

To beat Tadej Pogacar, the Dane is aware that his level must be well above that of the Vingegaard who won the Tour de France in 2023: "Everyone is stepping up, so I have to be better than I was 2 years ago. Last year I also had the feeling I could fight for the victory, but obviously it wasn't like that," added the two-time winner. 

Despite the tough results in 2024, Vingegaard concluded his remarks by saying that he is in a very different form from last season, which makes him very excited about the two races he will be competing in in the near future: "This year I feel completely different, both in how my body responds to training and how I feel physically".

This could be a good sign, adding to that of Simon Yates just winning the Giro d'Italia with a formidable performance in the mountains of the final week. Next week in France we will have a good idea of how the two are measuring up ahead of the Tour.