Over to you, Jonas Vingegaard. After Tadej Pogačar’s latest performance for the ages at Strade Bianche, it is now up to Vingegaard to show what he can do at Tirreno-Adriatico.
Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) is not riding the Tirreno-Adriatico and he is not scheduled to race against Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) this side of the Tour de France. Instead, the biggest Grand Tour favourites will clash by correspondence until July, pushing one another from a distance at different races, trying not to show concern about each other’s success.
“I was travelling and so I didn’t see Strade Bianche but I know Tadej did an 80 kilometre attack and that’s quite impressive,” Vingegaard said of Pogacar’s victory in Siena.
“He looks good, so we have to consider him as an opponent as always. When someone is that good, you also have to be good, so you have to put in the hard work too. That is motivating.”
At Paris-Nice, the duel between Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) is the big draw. At Tirreno-Adriatico, top billing is reserved for Vingegaard, with Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) his most dangerous rivals.
It’s difficult to picture anything other than a Vingegaard triumph, even though the battle with Ayuso will be fascinating.
Vingegaard can lean on a Visma-Lease A Bike supporting cast that includes Cian Uijtdebroeks, Dylan van Baarle and Steven Kruijswijk, a further advantage as he tries to win Tirreno-Adriatico for the first time.
“I was second two years ago and hopefully I can at least fight for the victory this year,” Vingegaard said, knowing that Pogačar beat him in 2022 before the Dane got revenge and won his first Tour de France later in the year.
“I’d say it’s the first big goal of the spring. I’m not racing a lot but I’m still racing quite a bit and for me it’s a nice goal. It’s one of the biggest races outside of the Grand Tours and definitely one I’d love to win.
“I was lucky not to get sick at Gran Camiño. I had a decent week, I didn’t lose any form and I was able to recover. It was a good decision not to do Strade Bianche too, it would have been a bit too much. But it’s a cool race that I love to watch. I like gravel when it’s a one-day race like Strade Bianche.”
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