Richard Plugge says Tadej Pogačar’s 'real level' can't be judged until he faces Big Four in July
Richard Plugge(Image credit: Getty Images)
The race against time continues. A sighting of Jonas Vingegaard training in Mallorca this week heightened anticipation that the Tour de France champion would return to racing in time for the Grand Départ in Florence, but his Visma-Lease a Bike team remains coy about his participation in this year’s race.
During a visit to the Giro d’Italia on Thursday, manager Richard Plugge told Cyclingnews that Vingegaard would only ride the Tour if he was at “100%” when the race gets underway on June 29. Plugge added that there was no precise deadline for a decision on the Dane’s participation.
Vingegaard sustained a punctured lung and a broken collarbone in a mass crash at Itzulia Basque Country in April, and he spent twelve days in hospital in Vitoria. Earlier this month, Vingegaard returned to riding on the road at home in Glyngøre, Denmark, and this week, he was spotted training on the Coll de Soler in Mallorca.
“He is doing well, he’s progressing really well,” Plugge told Cyclingnews. “But we need to make a decision later on if he is really able to be 100% at the start of the Tour de France. We need to see how it evolves in the coming weeks. We have good hopes, he is progressing well. But we also want to give him and ourselves the time to make a good decision.
“He is the defending Tour de France champion, he’s won it twice in a row now. But if he goes, he should be 100%. The Tour de France is not a race where you can go in with less and hope. Hope is never a good start, so we need to be sure he can be 100%.”
Vingegaard’s original Tour build-up was expected to feature altitude camps at Sierra Nevada and Tignes either side of the Critérium du Dauphiné. His revised schedule is altogether more fluid, though Plugge indicated that he was unlikely to race before the Tour.
“Maybe we will add a race, but I think we will get more from training because it’s the best and most controlled way of working after such a crash,” Plugge said.
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Vingegaard’s coach, Tim Heemskerk, recently told L’Équipe he hoped the rider would be able to return to something approaching a normal training load this week. He also indicated that the plan was for Vingegaard to spend at least some time at the team’s final pre-Tour altitude camp at Tignes. Plugge, for his part, insisted that there was no set deadline to make a decision on Vingegaard’s place in the Visma line-up.
“We don’t have a fixed deadline, it evolves,” Plugge said. “At a certain moment, we will know. “But when that moment will be is unclear.”
Pogačar
Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar (Image credit: Getty Images)
After sweeping all three Grand Tours in 2023, Visma-Lease a Bike have been beset by ill fortune this season. Cian Uijtdebroeks’ promising Giro debut was ended by illness last week, while Wout van Aert’s Classics campaign was halted by the injuries he sustained in a mass crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen.
Van Aert, who had been slated to ride the Giro, is now in contention for a spot in Visma’s Tour line-up, but, like Vingegaard, his participation is contingent on his fitness. The Belgian returned to action at the Tour of Norway on Thursday, coming in a little under three minutes down on the opening stage.
“We have good hopes Wout can come to the Tour de France, but we have to see how it goes in the Tour of Norway and how it evolves,” Plugge said. “For us, it’s a little bit strange. Normally we plan the whole year and keep to the plan. This year we have to adjust it, but that’s also part of the sport.”
Vuelta a España champion Sepp Kuss seems the most likely man to lead Visma-Lease a Bike at the Tour should Vingegaard miss out, but Plugge refused even to broach the question. “We will respond to that when the Tour starts,” he said.
While Vingegaard’s Tour participation remains a doubt, his chief rival Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) has been in complete control at the Giro, winning five stages so far as he strides closer to completing the first leg of his attempted double. In Padua on Thursday evening, Pogačar was asked for his take on Plugge’s assertion that Vingegaard would ride the Tour only if he was at “100%” of his condition.
“I mean, last year I was also not at my 100% and I still went and fought for the win,” said Pogačar, whose 2023 Tour preparation was hindered by the broken wrist he sustained at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. “You never know what can happen. The tables could turn. But I think Jonas will be 100%, so I think we will see him at the Tour at this best.”
Vingegaard has beaten Pogačar to the past two Tours, having finished second to the Slovenian on his Tour debut in 2021. Pogačar’s striking dominance at the Giro suggests that he will prove an even more redoubtable foe this July, though Plugge insisted that it was difficult to judge given the calibre of the opposition in Italy.
“I think what’s lacking here is that you don’t have Evenepoel or Roglič or Jonas Vingegaard to compete,” Plugge said. “That’s unfortunately the case. We have to see in the Tour de France what the real level is.”
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Barry Ryan is Head of Features at Cyclingnews. He has covered professional cycling since 2010, reporting from the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and events from Argentina to Japan. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Procycling and Cycling Plus. He is the author of The Ascent: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish Cycling’s Golden Generation, published by Gill Books.
