Jose De Cauwer: "More and more riders are skipping the Tour or approaching the Tour de France in a different way. I think it is a good thing for cycling"

With many riders already revealing their calendars for the 2024 season, much has been made of the Tour de France plans of Tadej Pogacar and the absence of the Grand Tour from Wout van Aert's race program.

"More and more riders - and especially top riders - are skipping the Tour or approaching the Tour de France in a different way. That is noticeable and I think it is a good thing for cycling," says Sporza's Belgian analyst, Jose De Cauwer. "Organizer ASO cannot ignore that signal. They must stop pretending that the other races are a side issue."

Although admittedly, Tadej Pogacar is riding a Giro d'Italia/Tour de France double, De Cauwer believes winning the Giro has become the Slovenian's main priority in 2024. "When Pogacar said he would ride the Giro, I already thought 'phew', even before we knew whether he would also go for the Tour," he says. "There is much more than the Tour de France in a season and he said it that way himself."

Wout van Aert will be skipping the Tour de France altogether in 2024. "He does it differently and he is right. It is a good change," says De Cauwer. "There is much more than the Tour, but there is also much more than the Tour of Flanders, also for Van Aert. Although the whole story of Visma-Lease a Bike was pinned on him and those 2 monuments yesterday. I read that he is relaxed, but he puts everything on the Tour and Roubaix. So nothing has changed in that area. And that is logical."