When the proposal of
Tadej Pogacar vs
Jonas Vingegaard vs
Primoz Roglic vs
Remco Evenepoel was first circulated for this summer's
Tour de France, the prospect was mouthwatering for cycling fans. In one crash at the
Itzulia Basque Country earlier this year however, three of the big-4 saw their Maillot Jaune hopes take a blow.
Whilst Pogacar was romping to a dominant victory at the Giro d'Italia, Vingegaard, Roglic and Evenepoel were all spending time away from the peloton in order to recover from their crashes at the Itzulia Basque Country. For
BORA - hansgrohe and Primoz Roglic, the upcoming Criterium du Dauphine marks a return to racing just in time ahead of this summer's Grand Tour fight.
"After his fall, he showed on altitude training that he is doing very well. His form is fine and now he wants to show that in racing, having shown in recent weeks what he is capable of," says BORA - hansgrohe sports director Christian Pömer in a pre-Dauphine conversation with In de Leiderstrui. "When he raced for the last time, he was in good form. He beat Remco Evenepoel in the opening time trial of the Itzulia Basque Country, despite a little incident. That was already a good performance, but the big goal remains the Tour de France: yet we want to take the next step in the Critérium du Dauphiné."
With Evenepoel also returning at the Dauphine and Vingegaard training hard to try and make a return for the Tour de France, Pogacar would seemingly have the clear advantage in the fight for the Maillot Jaune. "Primoz is in a good position, but so are his other opponents who were there in the Basque Country," says Pomer. "We all have the same problem though: we will meet Pogacar at the Tour."
"Fortunately, even he has to recover from time to time, so we are glad he is not here in the Dauphiné," Pomer concludes with BORA - hansgrohe taking a strong leadership trio of Roglic, Jai Hindley and Aleksandr Vlasov to the week long Tour de France precursor. "Of course we are here with a strong team, knowing that we also have Hindley and Vlasov. Nevertheless, our team for the Tour is still a surprise, because in cycling you have to stay flexible. However, we have a good strategy: for the Dauphiné, but an even better one for the Tour. But of course we won't announce it publicly."
