Tour favourite Pogacar ready to press for rare double

Tadej Pogacar has recovered from Covid-19 and feels ready for one of the toughest challenges in road cycling, the Giro d'Italia-Tour de France double.

The Slovenian destroyed his rivals in the Giro last month, but faces a formidable challenge from his main rival and defending Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard.

Irish representation will come via 2020 green jersey winner Sam Bennett, the Decathlon Ag2r La Mondiale rider buoyed by his recent victory at the Four Days of Dunkirk and Ben Healy will make his debut at the iconic race for the EF-Education-EasyPost team.

With Vingegaard short of competitive racing since he sustained serious injuries at the Tour of the Basque Country in April, Pogacar is the hot favourite to become the first to achieve the double since the later-disgraced Marco Pantani in 1998.

"It is pretty difficult to win one Grand Tour, it was difficult to win the Giro, I had to give everything," Pogacar, who won the Giro by almost 10 minutes, said.

"For sure the double is a big challenge and everybody agrees. But I'm excited by challenges."

After his Giro triumph, Pogacar took a week-long break before starting his preparation for the Tour, which was then slightly hampered by a bout of Covid-19.

"I had it 10 days ago but now I'm ready for a hot summer," said Pogacar, who also won the Liege-Bastogne-Liege Monument classic this spring.

By contrast, for Vingegaard, who crushed Pogacar last year and also beat him on the Tour in 2022 but has not raced since his crash, "just being here is a victory".

Asked about his ambitions in the race, the Dane kept his cards close to his chest.

"I hope for a good GC (general classification result)," he said.

"I had to take a long break after my crash. I had a lot of injuries that needed to