It’s too close to call, and that only makes opinions more entrenched. The only thing everyone can agree on with any certainty is that Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar are the two overwhelming favourites to win the 2023 Tour de France. Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess.
Every argument in favour of Vingegaard’s chances can be countered with the most watertight reasoning on Pogačar’s behalf, and vice-versa. Pogačar’s defeat of Vingegaard at Paris-Nice in March seemed to nudge the swingometer in the Slovenian’s favour. His broken wrist at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Vingegaard’s performances since, however, have centred the needle again.
Much of the history of the Tour has been written in duels, but few have felt as delicately poised as this one. Indeed, many of the race’s defining duels have, on closer examination, been rather lopsided affairs: a serial winner overcoming a compliant eternal second here, a paragon of consistency outlasting a mercurial talent there.
The Pogačar-Vingegaard contest doesn’t fit those archetypes. They have won a Tour apiece in their head-to-head meetings of the last two years, and they have also both proved to be remorseless winners across the rest of the calendar. Each man’s relentlessness is his calling card. Like Messi and Ronaldo or Federer and Nadal, they seem to be pushing one another towards new extremes.
Even though Pogačar arrives at this Tour with a dozen wins to his name in 2023, after one of the greatest Spring campaigns in the history of the sport, Vingegaard hasn’t been entirely eclipsed. The Dane has mopped up eleven wins of his own, including two WorldTour stage races, all while giving the disarming impression that he could well move up another gear or two in July.
At times, they seem to ride as though gravity were no longer what it used to be. Pogačar, whose default setting is all-out attack, has a more obviously restless and dramatic style than Vingegaard. His accelerations rarely surprise his opponents, even from long distance, but they almost always overwhelm them. In spring, his every race seemed to bring a new masterpiece.
Vingegaard has tended to take a more conventional approach, letting his Jumbo-Visma squad dictate terms before he finishes off their work. On occasion, it looks almost routine. On closer inspection, it’s anything but. At the Critérium du Dauphiné, for instance, it was sobering to note that he pulled away from his rivals without climbing from the saddle and,…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…