With the Critérium du Dauphiné completed and the Tour de France less than three weeks away, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and the other main favourites for the Tour de France have headed to their respective final altitude camps, ahead of the July 5 Grand Départ in Lille.
Pogačar and UAE have opted for Isola 2000 for their preparations, as they did last season, and on Monday the world champion was spotted in Sant’Anna di Vinadio by fans, just across the border in Italy.
He was on a 30km “cappuccino ride” alongside Jhonatan Narváez, Marc Soler and Pavel Sivakov, as the latter described it on Strava, after they helped guide him to a maiden victory at the Dauphiné.
After his victory, Pogačar said he would be sharpening up on the one weakness from his eight days of racing.
“We go to altitude camp at Isola 2000, then three days home, and to the Tour. There’s basically not too much to do. Rest after this great week, do some extra work on the time trial, maybe, and then I’m ready.”
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) are all based in Tignes, a little further north in the French Alps, nearer to the finish of the Dauphiné’s final stage in Mont-Cenis.
After suffering defeat at the hands of Pogačar, Vingegaard and Visma will hope to improve significantly after their two weeks at altitude, and while the Dane is aware he’ll start as second favourite for the Tour, he won’t leave any stone unturned in trying to close the gap.
“Tadej is the biggest favourite [for the Tour]. We only focus on ourselves. We focus on our process to be as good as possible in the Tour. And we still do it, no matter what happens here,” he said after stage 8.
“I’m going to Tignes, and then I’m going to train to get better and maybe lose a little weight. Time will tell,” he added, speaking to TV2 Denmark.
Evenepoel’s stock has gone done slightly, after he finished well away from Pogačar and Vingegaard at the Dauphiné, but three weeks – most of which is at altitude – is plenty time to work on weaknesses ahead of the Tour.
He posted a casual ride from Tignes yesterday on his Strava of just 46km, with the much more intense training still to come.
Roglič didn’t race his rivals in June and opted against defending his Dauphiné title, as he continued to try and recover after crashing several times and eventually out from the Giro d’Italia, having started as the favourite.
He too, is in Tignes, where he has often enjoyed training, as he builds up for another tilt at the Tour, following another DNF at last year’s race, his first appearance at cycling’s biggest race with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.
Roglič posted an update to his Instagram after not being such much following the disappointment of the Giro, saying “Antibiotics done. Back to the mountains. No gagagaga. Que sera sera.”
It sounds like his recovery is done, and he’ll be hoping to avoid further crashes at the Tour, something which has often eluded him.
Roglič should be encouraged, however, by the stunning performance of young teammate Florian Lipowitz at the Dauphiné, who beat Evenepoel to third, and could, following that step-up, be on his way to a debut at the Tour de France alongside the Slovenian.
