After Tadej Pogačar’s Giro win post, this reel is still his most popular Instagram post with almost a half a milion likes. Then in second place there is the post of the win in stage 20 at the Tour de France, then Tour 2023 stage 6 win and then only his post with a Giro trophy.
"Jonas Vingegaard is the favourite for the Tour de France” insists UAE's Joxean Matxin
CyclingTuesday, 04 June 2024 at 15:55
Many would consider Tadej Pogacar the hot favourite to get the third Maillot Jaune of his career at the upcoming Tour de France. According to the Slovenian's UAE Team Emirates boss Joxean Matxin however, that status remains with Jonas Vingegaard.
Whether or not the two-time, back-to-back Tour de France-winning Dane will even make it to the race this year remains unconfirmed however, after a nasty crash at the Itzulia Basque Country saw Vingegaard suffer a fractured collarbone, fractured rib(s) and a pneumothorax. According to Matxin though, there is little doubt about Vingegaard defending his Tour de France crown and the UAE Team Emirates boss is expecting the 27-year-old not just be at the startline but to be very much fighting fit.
“That Vingegaard had a serious crash in the Itzulia Basque Country? Last year, Tadej crashed three weeks later in April and was in Vingegaard's slipstream until the Tour de France's time trial," Matxin recalls in conversation with Sporza, explaining his viewpoint. "Vingegaard will also have been on almost constant altitude training for this Tour and he is the leader of the team that won the three Grand Tours last year. Jonas Vingegaard is the top favourite for the Tour de France.”
It's not just Vingegaard that Matxin sees as a viable threat to his Giro d'Italia winning team leader either. “I will certainly also take Primoz Roglic, Aleksandr Vlasov and Remco Evenepoel into account,” Matxin notes, although the immense strength of UAE Team Emirates lineup around their leader is a massive benefit. “We certainly have a great team for the Tour (including Juan Ayuso, João Almeida, Adam Yates, Pavel Sivakov, Marc Soler, Nils Politt and Tim Wellens ed.). Tadej is our only leader. But there are still teams with a strong leader.”
Finally, Matxin also took time to address the rumours of a potential Vuelta a Espana appearance for Pogacar if the Tour de France joins the Giro d'Italia on his list of successes for 2024. “Winning the three Grand Tours in the same year is great for the history books, but that is not the case this year," Matxin concludes, echoing the thoughts of Pogacar himself. "The Vuelta was never on Pogacar's schedule.”
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- Are you serious? Have you thought of the implications and logistics? Considering that almost every rider lives in a complete my different place, has to train all year round and might want to have some margin in schedule and teams don’t really have a base, what do you suggest, live-in babysitters? Besides, as long as not more is considered important (also by teams it seems) during racing, it would be a little hypocritical to treat training differently. Maybe that’s part of the reason why cycling stars are still relatively « badly » paid.Mistermaumau03-12-2024
- Why is Greg always mentioning Armstrong negatively, while knowing but never mentioning that all of Armstrong's competitors were doping also? It couldn't be that Greg wants to be sure he's always known as the only USA winner of TDF could it? Give it a rest Greg. Armstrong's 7 (!) TDF wins should still be acknowledged as wins & only struck if all known dopers' wins are struck eg Bjarne Riis' 2005 win (Riis has since publicly admitted he was on EPO), Marco Pantani's win 1998 (obviously was on EPO), Jan Ullrich's win 1997 (publicly admitted took EPO, steroids thru his career), etc. The cyclingnews.com site has the same problem whenever Armstrong comes up. Greg ought to go ride with Armstrong -- except Greg looks so out of shape, I doubt he could.Xrider5103-12-2024
- Yeah, that will be good for Cyclocross also.
DareDevil03-12-2024 - Not good. Will he be ready for the classics still?DareDevil03-12-2024
- Bernal, Remco - how do these teams not have support to keep their multi million dollar investments safe in training rides? Be it scooters ahead of them or finding safer routes, this is insane.mij03-12-2024
- ahahahahahha
maria2024202403-12-2024 - what??? Jonas has a climber perfect physique. He is very light, enormous quadriceps and if you see him from the side, you'll see a huge thorax (big lugs). Better than that impossibile, he was born to climb, a specialist. Tadej is versatile as his physique shows. He's not a specialist.maria2024202403-12-2024
- Heal up Remco!awp03-12-2024
- I never considered him arrogant. He was outspoken at times and angry at other times. He's a professional athlete, sometimes they are emotional.awp03-12-2024
- Embarrassing, lol
ScottG03-12-2024