Jonas Vingegaard anticipates Paris-Nice battle with Pogacar: "Tadej will be one of the main rivals in my career"

Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard headlined an epic battle last year at the Tour de France. Part of the same generation and with similar strong climbing attributes, the Dane admits he expects to face him throughout much of his career.

"The Tour has changed my life, everyone knows what it means. I myself haven't changed and I never will." Vingegaard said in an interview with Canal+. "Everyone knows me now, I am recognized more often. But that's part of being known, I don't have a problem with it."

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Vingegaard is ready to lead Jumbo-Visma at the French stage-race, a modest lineup in the mountains compared to what he usually races with. Pogacar won't be ahead of Vingegaard however. The two are the main favourites for Paris-Nice after both have put on storming riders throghout the month of February - Vingegaard has won all three stages and GC at Gran Camino.

“It will be difficult to do even better, but we can only try," the Dane continues. "We are still hungry to win more. So the goal is to win the Tour de France again. I still want to get better and win more games. I would love it if I could win a one-week stage race like Paris-Nice or the Critérium du Dauphiné. I love France and find it very nice to race there."

The race features two summit finishes and the final mountainous stage to Nice where the climbers will be tested to the limit. It will be a truly difficult week with punchy stages and a team time-trial also in the mix, and as always the rough weather and wind can play further role in how the overall classification will unravel.

"Tadej will be one of the main rivals in my career, but there are also a lot of young riders coming up. There are so many strong men in the peloton, there are more than just Tadej. My career is already a success. I can retire in X number of years and say I won the Tour de France. I can look back on that with pride when I am an old man, I am very happy about that. It also creates less pressure," Vingegaard admits.

"When I worked in the fish auction (his former job, ed.), I wanted to become a professional cyclist. I never thought that I would get this far, that I would be the winner of the Tour de France," he concluded.