With UAE Team Emirates certain to take both Juan Ayuso and João Almeida to the Tour de France in 2024, alongside Tadej Pogacar's four consecutive Tours and dream to race the Giro d'Italia, it seemed as if 2024 could be the year. However, that seems unlikely now, and Slovenian analysts agree with the idea that he should wait.
"I know the background. Our two heroes get on the nerves of the people of these great cycling nations. The results of the Golden Bike awards are like in skiing where the best of the season is declared based on one or two important races, not based on how many points someone has accumulated throughout the season," Gorazd Penko told RTV Slo regarding the Velo d'Or, where Pogacar was voted behind Jonas Vingegaard. "We have a more objective criterion for the golden bicycle in Slovenia. The winner is the one with the most points in the world ranking."
The victory of Vingegaard came as a surprise to most, who had Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar as the main favourites. Pogacar had an incredible season. He did not manage to win the Tour de France but finished second with several stage wins. Adding the victories at Il Lombardia, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Nice, Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallone, Vuelta a Andalucia and Clásica Jaén Paraiso Interior among other strong results.
"It seems that we will have poker aces at the Tour of France: Vingegaard, Pogačar, Roglič, Evenepoel. Two of those are, at least in some thinking, in play for the Giro-Tour double," Igor Tominec said about what is expected from next summer's highly anticipated Tour. "This is what Remco is thinking about, and Pogačar is what the Italian organizers want most, because it is hard to overlook the atmosphere created by Slovenian fans at the Italian race. However, it will be difficult to decide on a combination of races in Italy and France."
After the route reveals, the UAE Team Emirates rider looked much more keen in returning to the Tour, and likely combine that with peaks towards the cobbled classics, Olympic Games and Il Lombardia. "In the Italian race (Giro d'Italia, ed.), they reduced the number of altitude meters to make the race look easier, but in the end you have to look at who all is registered on the start list. Tough rivals can make your life miserable at the Giro d'Italia, and if you then think about the Tour of France and the Olympic Games, it's all too much quickly."
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