Bone broken, but ambition intact for Pogacar on Tour de France

BILBAO, Spain : It is fair to assume that if someone is going to beat defending champion Jonas Vingegaard at this year's Tour de France they will need to be at their best, yet Tadej Pogacar believes he has a shot at the title despite a far-from-ideal preparation.

The Slovenian, who last year cracked under pressure from Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma team in the ‘stage of the century’ to the Col du Granon and had to settle for second overall after triumphing in 2020 and 2021, broke his wrist in multiple places in April.

The recovery time hampered his preparation for the Tour and he only returned to competitive racing in his national championships earlier this month, winning both the time trial and road race titles.

But the Tour is a three-week effort with much stronger opposition, such as Denmark’s Vingegaard, who geared up for the race by winning the Criterium du Dauphine at the beginning of the month.

“The wrist is not completely fine,” Pogacar, who said Vingegaard was the big favourite, told a news conference on Thursday, two days before the first stage in Bilbao.

“I feel OK on the bike but the wrist is not back to full mobility, 60, 70 per cent. I did a scan on Monday and two out of three bones have healed but the scaphoid still needs more time.”

For Pogacar, only full speed racing will determine whether he can give his best.

“We will see in the race itself. I had a good training in the last couple of weeks but I didn’t race normally. Normally before the Tour I would race the Dauphine. I think the legs are good, the mentality is super good, I hope I’m ready.”

The opening block of Tour stages are seen as some of the toughest in recent years, with hilly terrain in the Basque country that will make for "explosive" racing, according