“What level is he going to be at? We just don’t know” - Sean Kelly unsure Jonas Vingegaard will be able to challenge Tadej Pogacar

The condition of defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard remains one of the biggest talking points, with the 2024 edition of the race just a day away. Not seen racing competitively since his crash at the Itzulia Basque Country, both Vingegaard's fitness and current level are a complete mystery.

Due to this, five time Tour de France stage winner, former Vuelta a Espana champion and Paris-Nice legend, Sean Kelly is unsure Team Visma | Lease a Bike's Danish leader will be able to mount a significant challenge to his old rival, Tadej Pogacar on the roads of France over the next month of dramatic action.

“Vingegaard, what level is he going to be at?” the 68-year-old Irishman asks aloud in conversation with Velo. “We just don’t know, because we haven’t had any indicator. We didn’t see him at Dauphiné. And the races he did in the early part of the season, they don’t really count anymore after the accident, because what he did was before that crash."

“So that is going to be the big question — how good is Vingegaard going to be? So too the other guys, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic. They are going to be riding for the win, of course, heading into the start of the Tour," continues Kelly, a former 4th placed finisher at the Tour de France himself, assessing the rest of the Maillot Jaune hopefuls. “But then as the race goes on, they have to just see how Pogacar is and also how Vingegaard is.”

Even with the pre-race favourite Pogacar, Kelly finds question marks and potential pitfalls. “Looking at Pogačar, will the Giro affect him? That is the other question, because it is also something new for him, doing the Giro and the Tour in the same year," the Eurosport expert analyses. “Will he support that? I think he will, but how will the body live up to that challenge?”

“He was just amazing in the Giro. He was so good there that it made the race boring, really,” Kelly concludes. “The fight for the GC was over after a couple of days. Unless he got sick or had a crash and lost some time, then it was just a foregone conclusion that he was going to dominate. And any time he wanted to dominate, he just put his team on the front and then just rode away from everybody in the end.”