Not yet next to each other, as will be the day after tomorrow with the historic Florentine start of the Tour de France number 111, but for now we can be satisfied with seeing them parade one after the other: for what the last months of preparation have been like between falls and misfortunes, it was anything but obvious. And instead here they are in the council room of Palazzo Vecchio the cannibals of the last four Tours: not only Tadej Pogacar, 2020 and 2021 champion who longs to go from the pink of the Giro to yellow, but above all Jonas Vingegaard, ready to race after the disastrous fall at the Giro of the Basque Country. The Slovenian spoke first, with a significant admission to extinguish the surrounding chatter: Pogacar actually went through Covid as he approached Florence. “It happened ten days ago, nothing serious, the preparation went very well anyway – admitted Tadej -. I lost little time, first I trained alone and then I was able to go out when I was no longer contagious”. And even more in detail about the preparation for the race of the year: “After the Giro I only relaxed for a week, then my grandfather died and I wanted to return to Slovenia, now we’ll see who has trained legs and who is in shape, but I suppose they all are… I’m not the only one to keep an eye on, there are many great riders here. It’s already difficult to win one grand tour, let alone two in a row, but this is a great challenge that I like. It’s nothing easy, the first stages will already be tough, but I expect big gaps especially in the fourth.”
ready to bite
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It is inevitable to shoot arrows at the arch-enemy that Pogacar has been waiting for a year and who is now on the other side of the room, ready to give him a change in front of the media lined up in combat gear. “Vingegaard and I have an extraordinary relationship, even if we only see each other in July: you talk about rivalry, but here there is only respect. I am happy he is at the start and I am sure he is very very ready, otherwise he would not be here. Competing with him will be a spectacle. To beat him I cannot allow myself to make mistakes like in the last two years, even the smallest one can be fatal and make you lose. On a mental level you have to be ready”. The Slovenian’s other rival, then, is called hot: “Every year I adapt better and when it is too cold I don’t like it… I have made progress on this terrain too”. The rest, then, is done by the battleship that accompanies him and parades with him from Palazzo Vecchio to Piazzale Michelangelo: “This UAE is one of the strongest teams ever seen, we have superstars of the mountains and we go strong on the plains, it’s an honor to captain this team”, concluded Pogi, ready to bite the Tour already in Italy.
