Defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard was in Paris for the presentation of the 2024 route and he liked what he saw.
The Jumbo-Visma rider won the time trial stage in 2023 and cracked Tadej Pogačar in the high Alps. Both will return to the Tour de France in 2024.
“I’m really excited about it. It seems super hard, especially the third week, it seems super hard,” Vingegaard said. “I think it’s a good parcours for me. Obviously I’m looking forward to it.”
Vingegaard won the Tour de France, Itzulia Basque Country, Critérium du Dauphiné, O Gran Camiño in 2023, and he was second behind teammate Sepp Kuss at the Vuelta a España.
Those wins also gave him the prestigious Velo d’Or prize despite Mathieu van der Poel’s success in the Classics.
“To be honest it’s almost the perfect season for me, for what I can achieve,” Vingegaard said.
“I had a few races I didn’t win and of course I’d like do better in, but to be voted as the best cyclist in the world is nice and I appreciate it. I hope to do the same in 2024.”
The 2024 Tour de France includes 52,230 metres of vertical gain, with perhaps fewer high climbs than in the past and shorter stages. However, Vingegaard highlighted the difficulties of stage 20 over the 2,802m high Cime de la Bonette and up to Isola 2000.
“It seems the second to last road stage is super, super hard. with a lot of altitude too,” Vingegaard said.
“There may be less altitude metres than in total but I think the altitude metres that there are, are harder than this year.”
Vingegaard will start the 2024 Tour de France wearing race number one as defending champion but is likely to face a huge challenge from Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), former teammate turned rivals Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) and others. He did not seem concerned.
“If we all four go there it’ll be a huge battle. I’m looking forward to it,” he said.
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