Organisers of the CRO Race have announced that Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard will be among the riders on the start line for the UCI 2.1-ranked race when it begins on 27 September.
Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and Majej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) are also on the provisional start list.
The CRO Race has not yet announced its full roster of teams but Trek-Segafredo are expected to field a team, as are Israel-Premier Tech, who are deep in the throes of the WorldTour points hunt.
Vingegaard has not raced since becoming the first Danish Tour de France champion since Bjarne Riis. He missed last month’s Denmark Tour and pulled out of the UCI Road World Championships in Wollongong, Australia next week.
The decision led to hard feelings by the Danish federation, who missed out on Vingegaard’s presence in the Olympic Games in Tokyo last year after a tough Tour de France.
“I had a dialogue with Jumbo-Visma before and after the Tour de France. And after the Tour, they announced firmly that it was not part of the plans for Vingegaard to ride the World Championships,” Danish coach Anders Lund recently told TV 2 Sport.
“I always want all the professionals to stand and raise their hands in the air and want to ride for the national team, so I would also have liked to see Vingegaard in the group of riders who want to ride the World Championships. But I take it into account, and I can see from the squad that it will be more than effective anyway. So I sleep well at night.”
There have been suggestions that Vingegaard has struggled to adapt to his status as Tour de France champion, with Jumbo-Visma director Frans Maassen indicating the Dane had had “a very tough time” since sealing the yellow jersey.
“We would have liked to show him off during the Tour of Denmark, but we also have to understand that it was difficult to win the Tour de France, what with everything that comes with it,” Maassen said.
Bernal, meanwhile, continues his low-key return to racing after a nearly fatal crash in January, when he ran full-speed into the back of a stopped city bus while training on his time trial bike.
He is expected to join Jonathan Castroviejo, Michał Kwiatkowski, Geraint Thomas, and Elia Viviani on the team in Croatia.
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