Jonas Vingegaard: Team Visma Lease-a-Bike rider to compete at Tour de France if he is 100% - Richard Plugge
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Published 24/05/2024 at 09:59 GMT
Jonas Vingegaard will only compete at the 2024 Tour de France if he is "100%", according to Team Visma Lease-a-Bike general manager Richard Plugge. Vingegaard is currently recovering from a horror crash at the Itzulia Basque Country in April. While Plugge said Vingegaard was "progressing really well", he also said there was no set deadline for his return to competition.
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Team Visma Lease-a-Bike general manager Richard Plugge has commented on Jonas Vingegaard's chances of competing at the 2024 Tour de France.
A third successive Tour de France title for Vingegaard is in doubt after the 27-year-old suffered a number of serious injuries in a horror crash at the Itzulia Basque Country in April.
His recovery from a punctured lung, fractured ribs and broken collarbone appears to be going well as he was recently spotted training in Mallorca.
In comments to Cyclingnews, Plugge confirmed Vingegaard was making a speedy recovery but refused to be drawn on whether he would be able to compete at the Tour de France.
“He is doing well, he’s progressing really well,” Plugge said. “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%.”
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The Tour de France will get underway on June 29, with Vingegaard unlikely to participate in a race beforehand.
“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.
“We don’t have a fixed deadline, it evolves. At a certain moment, we will know. But when that moment will be is unclear.”
The favourite for this year’s Tour de France is Tadej Pogacar, who is currently wearing the pink jersey at the Giro d’Italia, live on discovery+.
But Plugge suggested Pogacar’s dominance in Italy was down to the absence of his rivals, including Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic.
“I think what’s lacking here is that you don’t have Evenepoel or Roglic 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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