2023-10-26 07:35:35
We knew him in yellow, his favorite color, but not completely black. Jonas Vingegaard took to the stage of the Palais des Congrès in Paris before the presentation of the course dressed all in black. Trousers, jacket and turtleneck sweater: the blond Danish man presented himself to a standing ovation from elected officials and the public who came this October 25 to witness the lifting of secrecy: the route of the Tour de France 2024. The Visma rider will be there obviously the big favorite.
Double reigning winner in 2022 and 2023, he crushed the last edition with his domination. Only Tadej Pogacar seems at this time able to prevent him from achieving the hat-trick. So the journey ultimately doesn’t matter to him. Absent the day before the Vélo d’or ceremony where he was crowned best cyclist of the year, but present this Thursday at the Palais des Congrès, Vingegaard says he is already impatient to be at the start in Florence. “It’s a very exciting journey,” he judges. What I just discovered really suits me. We’re going to have three super difficult weeks. It’s going to be hard no matter what and that’s a good thing. To be honest, none of this scares me. It’s even something that suits me quite well on paper. I’m very happy about it and very excited and I’m really looking forward to the start. »
From his first analysis of the road to be taken to get from Florence to Nice, Jonas Vingegaard does not seem to have yet identified any key stages. Or rather yes: he found twenty-one because according to him, the Tour could be played anywhere from the first to the last day. “You will have to be able to do everything, to be good everywhere. We will have gravel (9th stage, Troyes-Troyes), flat, time trial (7th and 21st stages). You will have to be good everywhere, in all aspects of cycling. I think the 19th stage is the one that suits me best (145 kilometers with three passes at more than 2000 meters above sea level), because the more altitude there is, the better I feel. »
A less mountainous Tour than in 2023, OK, but with two passages in the Alps and a finale in the Nice hinterland, Jonas Vingegaard will have the opportunity to make some differences. And it is also not impossible that the last time trial between Monaco and Nice will please him, he who showed the full extent of his strength and stunned the Tour in that of Combloux last summer.
#Tour #France #super #exciting #outgoing #winner #Jonas #Vingegaard