Merijn Zeemansports director of Jumbo-Vismaacknowledged Slovenian superiority Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) to Jonas Vingegaard recently Paris-Beautifulbut made it clear that the Dane was “not in his best form”.
The coach considered Pogacar’s demonstration in the ‘Carrera del Sol’, where he won the general classification and three stages, “impressive”, while he highly appreciated another exhibition, Primoz Roglic in Tirreno Adriatico. Despite remaining a triple winner of the Tour in Italy, Zeeman assured that “he will go to the Giro and not the Tour.”
“Pogacar is incredibly good, I’m not too surprised by his superiority, but of course it’s very impressive,” Zeeman told NOS.
The director of Jumbo-Visma explained his vision of the performance of vingegaard in Paris-Nice.
“Jonas has never won a week-long World Tour race. That was a goal after winning the Tour de France. We are optimistic about the result, but after training at altitude in Tenerife, Vingegaard had to deal with some private issues that stopped him and he was not at his best last week. That’s a valid excuse,” he said.
About Roglic is a cousinwinner of the ‘Race of the Two Seas’, Zeeman highlighted the recovery of the Slovenian, who has been sidelined for a long time due to a shoulder injury that forced him to undergo surgery.
“He’s been out for a long time with a shoulder injury, so he hasn’t been on the bike for a long time. That’s why we haven’t lined him up in principle for Tirreno and he’s not due to start until next season. Sunday at the Tour of Catalonia. the recovery is faster and in the altitude training we saw that he is progressing very quickly“, he commented.
“Since he also had enough training weeks, we decided that it would be better for him to compete in Tirreno,” explained the coach.
Zeeman emphasized the surprise that Roglic’s showing in the Italian race brought him.
“Roglic is a very special athlete who, besides being very strong, knows very well what he can and cannot do. Winning three stages and the final classification was a big surprise for us. But it’s beautiful,” he emphasized.
Despite the good impression offered by Roglic, the triple winner of the Tour of Spain will compete in the Giro d’Italia, and not the Tour.
“The Giro is also a very special race for us. Today we won both the Tour and the Vuelta with Vingegaard and Roglic, but never the turn. So that’s a very important goal.. If everything goes normal, Roglic will not do the Tour,” he said.
Source: La Verdad
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