Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease a Bike), double winner of the Tour de France, expressed his confidence in “returning to the Tour in better condition than this year” and discuss the “grande boucle” crown with Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, his great rival.
Despite losing the 2024 Tour in Pogacar by more than 6 minutes, the Dane is optimistic about the next edition, once he forgets the serious fall in the Tour of the Basque Country that hindered him for the rest of the season.
“Obviously I lost this year, so in some ways maybe you’re not like you used to be, but I still believe I can win the Tour. With proper preparation I can do very well and fight for successVenegaard told TV2 Sport.
The Nordic cyclist is in the preparation phase for the next seasonwhere he hopes to regain his former level to compete with Pogacar.
“In the Tour I wasn’t as explosive as I used to be because I lost a lot of muscle mass and, on the longer climbs, I couldn’t drive with the same watts as before the crash. I was lacking something compared to what I felt before. the accident” explained the leader of Visma.
Vingegaard admitted that Pogacar had taken a step forward, and that “we must try to do something to close the gap.”
“Obviously I can’t rest for three months, so I have to continue and try to close the gap last season with Pogacar.”
The double Tour winner ended with a message of hope, motivated by the belief that he will be able to “get better on Tour” in 2015.
Source: La Verdad
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