Jonas Vingegaard on Roglic's Tour de France absence and Wout van Aert collaboration: "He has his own goals, I have mine"

Jonas Vingegaard is heading to the Tour de France to try and defend his title. It'll be a tough task, but a possible one no doubt. He will have a very strong support in Jumbo-Visma including Wout van Aert once again, but not Primoz Roglic.

“I know Primoz has his program, he did the Giro, and I think it would be a lot for him to do the Tour as well. For now, I’m focusing on the team I have and I’m very happy with them," Vingegaard said in an interview with Cyclingnews. The Tour de Suisse will follow for Roglic, who will likely then prepare for the Vuelta a Espana and Il Lombardia.

Read also

PREVIEW | Critérium du Dauphiné 2023 - Tour defending champion Jonas Vingegaard headlines colossal GC battle ahead of Tour de France

Vingegaard will nevertheless have a luxury lineup behind him with Sepp Kuss and Steven Kruijswijk in the high mountains, and an insanely strong block of classics specialists in Wout van Aert, Christophe Laporte, Tiesj Benoot, Dylan van Baarle and Nathan van Hooydonck who will support him on the flat and hilly days, alongside providing a lot of room for tactical maneuvers.

“I’m pretty sure Wout will be where he has to be. he has his own goals, I have mine. He wanted to do the Tour de Suisse and I have to respect that, that’s his choice," he said on van Aert, who will not aim for the green jersey as he looks to arrive fresh at the World Championships that come afterwards. "That would be hard, we saw Wout stepped up last year already. He was on of my best helpers. If he steps up he’ll be a GC contender instead.”

Read also

Tom Pidcock plays down his chances of taking the yellow jersey in Basque country: "It’s going to be a super-hard day"

As always Covid-19 remains a factor in the peloton, very much alight at the Giro where the team lost 3 riders before the race even started. Vingegaard is alive to the dangers: “For sure, it’s something have to be careful about, we were already careful last year, and now you get a bit scared seeing how it was in the Giro d’Italia. So I have to stay focused and try to not get sick."

Vingegaard has suffered a defeat on Pogacar at Paris-Nice earlier in the year, but he is keen on pointing out he does not feel the need for a revenge at what should be a balanced battle at the Tour. “You always try to improve it, you look back up see what went well and what didn’t then make it a better one. We’ve also tried it this year. I’d like to win it, but not as revenge for anything that happened before. I just like to do as well as possible every time.” And in July, of course, that won't be any different, either," Vingegaard concluded. 

Read also

"Primoz is a beer drinker" - Sam Oomen recalls crazy post-Giro d'Italia party

Steven Kruijswijk explains how Primoz Roglic's absence could be a benefit to Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour de France: "Last year it was a bit of a compromise"