"It's the best line-up ever seen in a Grand Tour." The eight cyclists chosen by Jumbo-Visma for the Tour of Spain, which begins this Saturday in Barcelona, are scary. Leading the mechanical banana are Jonas Vingegaard, winner of the last two Tours, and Primoz Roglic, with three Vueltas to his credit and champion of the Giro in June.
The person who makes such an assertion is Juan Ayuso, Pogacar's teammate in the UAE, third in 2022 and the great Spanish asset, along with Enric Mas (Movistar). No team has ever been able to take all three races in three weeks in the same year.
When the Danish and the Slovenian from Jumbo are asked about the co-leadership they look at each other, raise their eyebrows and smile. They don't want to give clues, or maybe they don't even know who is the strongest in this hot end of August. But what they do know – the results are there – is that they can dominate the Vuelta. “It would be spectacular if we did first and second. We have two leaders and obviously the objective is to win the red jersey”, proclaims Vingegaard. "The team would be delighted," says Roglic.
Despite winning the Tour, the Nordic does not come for tourism or, a priori, to put himself at the service of his partner. The bicephaly already served them in the 2022 Tour to wear down Pogacar in the Galibier and cause him to collapse in the Granon. “It's not the first time we've done it, we've tried it before. We'll see in the race. We are not going to race against each other, but together”, clarifies Vingegaard. “We have a strong team. It is not necessary to say who is going to work for whom. The mountains will be key to see who is the boss”, warns Roglic.
In fact, both of them were used to running together. In 2022 Roglic won the Dauphiné with his second-place teammate. The same order that occurred in the 2021 Itzulia. In addition, the Dane was a gregarious of Roglic in the 2020 Tour. “It was my first great tour. La Vuelta is special for me, I only have great memories of that edition because Roglic won the race”, recalls Vingegaard, now a star.
The 26-year-old Dane has not ridden since the Tour. He didn't even go to the Glasgow World Cup. He rested and prepared the Vuelta. "I don't know how the body will react during the race but to be honest, I feel good."
It will be the first time for him that he has done two rounds of 21 stages in the same season, a sensation that Roglic knows well, who has done it for the last five years, always closing with the Vuelta. The 33-year-old Slovenian is looking for the record of Roberto Heras's four victories after being forced to leave in 2022 due to a fall when he was fighting to close the gap with Remco Evenepoel (Soudal), who ultimately won. “Surely Remco is one of the rivals we have to beat. Every year he is better than the last. I have already raced against him, it is not necessary to compare him with Pogacar ”, conceded Vingegaard.
"He knows how to win the Tour twice, so he probably knows how to win the Vuelta as well," the Belgian, the new time trial world champion, gives him the favoritism. “It is great news for the peloton, the race and cycling that he is here. I am happy, for me it is a challenge”, says the defender of the title.
Just in case, if it needed to show that it was serious, Jumbo-Visma has not deprived itself of anything to support its leaders (Van Baarle, Kelderman, Gesink, Valter, Tratnik) and also brings the American Sepp Kuss, present in all his successes. "If you want to win you have to have Sepp," confesses Roglic, who in 2023 has signed up for all the tests in which he has participated: Tirreno-Adriatico, Volta a Catalunya, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Burgos. Barcelona cannot shine more with almost all the stars of cycling.
