'I would go full on from Day 1' – Philippe Gilbert thinks Jumbo should attack Tadej Pogacar early at Tour de France

Eurosport cycling expert Philippe Gilbert believes that Team Jumbo-Visma should attack Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) early at the Tour de France to test the Slovenian. Pogacar and Jumbo superstar Jonas Vingegaard come into the second Grand Tour of the year as the heavy favourites for the yellow jersey. Pogacar won back to back General Classification titles in 2020 and 2021 before Vingegaard prevented him from completing the hat-trick in 2022.

Ad But there are doubts over Pogacar coming into the Tour after he broke his wrist in a crash at Liege-Bastogne-Liege earlier this year, meaning he only returned to racing the weekend just gone at the Slovenian National Championships. CyclingPogacar and Evenepoel land national road titles, Wright takes British crownYESTERDAY AT 19:08 He looked in good form by winning both the Time Trial and Road Race but speaking on a media call before the Tour, Gilbert still thinks that Jumbo should test him early. “Everyone saw the problems of Pogacar from Liege and his recovery process,” explained Gilbert.

Bernal makes Tour return for Ineos, Pidcock also included after strong 2022 debut Pogacar and Evenepoel land national road titles, Wright takes British crown Full list of teams and riders for the Tour de France as Froome misses out “OK, he won both Slovenian championships [road and TT] but the level there is not at the highest of the World Tour. They have a good quality of riders but not the highest level. So those wins don’t show too much.

“Because if Pogacar is not ready, it will be in the first week. He will be searching maybe for some speed in the legs, maybe some competition rhythm. And if you let him come back into the race, it will be too late.