Four days before the start of the Tour de France, on Saturday 29 June with the Florence-Rimini, the two-time reigning champion Jonas Vingegaard loses a potential key man on the climb: Sepp Kuss. In fact, the American winner of the 2023 Vuelta will not participate in the 111th edition of the Boucle because, as Visma-Lease told Bike this morning, he has not recovered from Covid. His place will be taken by the 28-year-old Dutchman Bart Lemmen, who has never raced a grand tour so far: he has a particular history, in the sense that he started being a professional cyclist late because he was an officer in the Dutch Air Force.
the situation
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However, the unlucky year continues for Visma, who recovered Vingegaard after the accident on 4 April in the Basque Country and who had to deal with several crashes and unexpected retirements, see the absence of Van Aert at the Giro due to the fall of end of March in Belgium or Uijtdebroeks’ withdrawal from the Giro when he was wearing the white jersey of the best youngster. The Tour team, in addition to Vingegaard and Van Aert, is therefore made up of Jorgenson, Tratnik, Kelderman, Benoot, Laporte and Lemmen. On Wednesday the arrival of the 176 runners of the 22 teams in Florence, on Thursday the presentation of the teams in the heart of the Tuscan capital.
