After being caught up in a very nasty crash earlier this year at the Itzulia Basque Country, Jonas Vingegaard's Tour de France defence is at risk. As the Dane races to even make the start line, his hopes of retaining the Maillot Jaune look slim.
According to the latest talk from the Team Visma | Lease a Bike altitude training camp in Tignes, Vingegaard currently has a 50/50 chance of making it to the Grand Depart in Florence, although that doesn't mention his actual chances of battling the likes of Tadej Pogacar, Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel in the fight for the Maillot Jaune.
As such, would it be a better idea for the Dane to park his Tour de France ambitions until next year, and instead focus on returning to the Vuelta a Espana, where he finished runner-up last year to his teammate, Sepp Kuss. The experienced French cycling expert Cyrille Guimard is of this school of thought and proposes the Vuelta a Espana as the best option for Vingegaard in 2024.
"The team's staff are certainly more worried than we are about the current situation. Is it necessary to put Vingegaard at the start of the Tour de France rather than give him a few more weeks to prepare for the Vuelta a Espana?" Guimard ponders in his column for Cyclism'Actu. "To be honest, and even if we don't have all the facts, I don't see how he could play a leading role in the Tour de France."
"You can't get back to the top level in a month and a half, there's no such thing," Guimard concludes his assessment. "Overall, the team is in great difficulty, but that's not down to them, it's down to events. There are years when it happens like that. We just have to sit tight and wait."
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