Another Slovenian victory in the Tour de France? That seems pre-programmed. Defending champion Tadej Pogacar and his compatriot Primoz Roglic are likely to be too strong for the cycling competition once more this year if they present themselves in the form they have at the highlight of the season. But Corona might become a spoilsport not only for the duo, as several cases in several racing teams caused failures and short-term changes before the three-week spectacle. For this reason, at the team presentation and at the start of the 109th tour on Friday in Denmark’s capital Copenhagen, in front of thousands of fans, individual riders who were not allowed to start because of positive tests or whose substitutes had not yet traveled to Denmark were missing. Well-known names or Austrians were not among them.
And so the Slovenian favorites were spared infections. So Pogacar – not only because of Covid – made himself scarce in the run-up to the tour and withdrew to high-altitude training camps. However, the few racing appearances of the 23-year-old from the UAE team testified to the continued dominance of the Tour triumphant of 2020 and 2021. His sometimes dubious support staff, led by team boss Mauro Gianetti, who has been burdened with doping cases, has also remained unchanged. However, the racing team sponsored with millions from the Emirates is no exception – there are also staff with a bad reputation in other teams.
The west of Pogacar and Roglic have remained white so far. While the former is the undisputed tour captain once more, Roglic’ jumbo team has a second ace up its sleeve in Jonas Vingegaard. Last year, the Dane stepped in following Roglic’s fall and surprisingly finished second. All three flexed their muscles at this year’s tour dress rehearsals. Three-time Vuelta winner Roglic won the Dauphine criterium ahead of Vingegaard. Pogacar and his noble helper Rafal Majka dominated the not so strong Tour of Slovenia at will. “We’ve had a good year so far, hopefully we can continue that on the Tour. But we know it won’t be easy and there are many challenges, but that’s part of the magic of the Tour,” said Pogacar.
Roglic wants to dethrone his compatriot with concentrated team strength. “We have many drivers with very high quality. Now we have to work well together. We firmly believe that we can beat Tadej,” emphasized Roglic on Wednesday. His team – which at least at the beginning of the tour has to do without the corona-infected sports director Merijn Zeeman – has an outstanding team with all-rounder Wout van Aert (three tour stage wins in 2021) and several climbing experts like Sepp Kuss.
Morning raid
The six Austrians are out for daily successes. In the year following his heroic stage triumph, Patrick Konrad competes in the Bora association together with double state champion Felix Großschartner and leader of the pack Marco Haller. However, the overall prospects of their captain Alexander Wlasow, who recently recovered from a corona infection, are questionable. Michael Gogl (Alpecin), Gregor Mühlberger (Movistar) and debutant Sebastian Schönberger (B&B Hotels) are helping and chasing the stage. The climbers can let off steam until the finale on July 24th in Paris. The highlights include the Planche des Belles Filles (July 8th), Col de Granon (13th), L’Alpe d’Huez (14th) and Hautacam (21st). In front of the mountains, dangerous wind edges might cause unrest in Denmark and northern France.
Danish police officers caused another type of unrest on Thursday morning. She raided the Bahrain-Victorious team’s hotel the day before launch at the request of French authorities. The investigators searched all of the team members’ rooms and team vehicles in the early hours of the morning. According to the racing team, nothing was confiscated during the two-hour campaign.
