Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard will largely be sticking to the same race calendar that brought him four stage race wins – including the Tour – in 2023, with only two major changes in programme set to feature on his 2024 schedule.
Once again, the Dane will start his season at the 2.1 O Gran Camiño for its third edition on February 22-25. He’ll then take on Tirreno-Adriatico in early March, swapping out Paris-Nice for the Italian stage race and with it a first season showdown with Tadej Pogačar atop Monte Petrano.
Following The Race of the Two Seas, Vingegaard will repeat his 2023 Tour de France build-up, heading to Itzulia Basque Country (April 1-6), where he beat Mikel Landa last spring. His race-light build-up to the Tour will conclude with a defence of his Critérium du Dauphiné title on June 2-9, taking his race days count to 25 before July.
His second meeting of the season with Pogačar will come at the Tour de France, with the pair doing battle over the yellow jersey for the fourth summer in a row.
Later in the year, Vingegaard will likely return to the Vuelta a España (August 17-September 8), tackling the race for the third time in his career and taking aim at improving on his second place in 2023. A final decision will only be made later in the season.
An appearance at the UCI Road World Championships in Zürich on September 29 is also provisional, where the road race would be the sole one-day event on his 2024 programme.
Last month, Vingegaard expressed interest in tackling the road races at both the Worlds and the Paris Olympic Games (August 3). However, while he said “I think I’m going to ride [Worlds]. It’s somewhat safer, both because there is room for more riders and the route suits my type of rider better”, he doubted whether he’d make the cut for the four-man squad at the latter race.
In contrast to Vingegaard, his main Tour de France rival Tadej Pogačar has selected a more eclectic programme of races for the upcoming season. The Slovenian’s spring sees him tackle the Monuments of Milan-San Remo (March 4) and Liège-Bastogne-Liège (April 21) as well as the gravel of Strade Bianche (March 2) and stage racing appointments at Tirreno-Adriatico (March 4-10) and the Volta a Catalunya (March 18-24).
He’ll then head to Italy in May for a Giro d’Italia (May 4-26) debut, taking his pre-Tour race day count to 38. There, he’ll eye his third career Grand Tour victory and the first half of a Giro-Tour double that hasn’t been seen since…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…