The 109th edition of the Tour de France starts tomorrow from Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, where a time trial of thirteen kilometers is planned. A first test for the favorites in the yellow jersey, or rather the favorite Tadej Pogaçar, double title holder, best climber in the peloton and excellent on all terrains. The young Slovenian is still the man to beat, the method remains to be found and until then his rivals are having a hard time.
From our special correspondent in Copenhagen,
When asked how to beat Tadej Pogaçar, his compatriot and rival Primoz Roglic has a ready answer: “ We must be better “. But who is hiding behind this we »? The collective of his Jumbo-Visma team with, as a luxury lieutenant, another candidate for the podium Jonas Vingegaard? Or maybe an alliance of circumstances against the scarecrow Pogaçar? One thing is certain, we will have to be inventive and get involved.
” You have to have a harassment tactic, believes the director of the Tour, Christian Prudhomme. Pogaçar is undoubtedly the strongest, however the strongest team seems to be Jumbo-Visma. We speak less, and perhaps wrongly, of the Inéos team with four potential leaders. There are runners who are experienced in the wind, on the pavement. I have no doubt that they have plans to try, in the first days of the Tour de France, to put it at a distance since then en the mountains, it will be much more complicated to attack him. »
And the opportunities will be numerous between the stage of the Danish bridges on Friday, those of the cobblestones of the north of France, Wednesday. The ground lends itself to great maneuvers, to bring down a Pogaçar, who in a year has lost nothing, neither his talent, nor the little smirk of the kid who is not afraid of anything.