Defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard will be missing from race action for nearly two months after his knock-out victory in the Itzulia Basque Country last week.
The Jumbo-Visma star took a hat-trick of stage wins as well as the overall in the six-day race, dominating his rivals at his pleasure.
But he will now take some time away from racing until the Critérium du Dauphiné in June prior to returning to the Basque Country for the start of the Tour on July 1.
Last year Vingegaard raced both La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but he did not finish either. This time around, in marked contrast to the Classics-heavy race program of arch Tour de France rival Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), he’s missing out on both.
"It's a very sensible program," Danish cycling expert and former pro Michael Rasmussen told Ekstra Bladet. "The formula works for him and it sounds like a good plan.
"Many days without racing is the right thing to do for him. When you ride a bike race, all other things being equal, there is a significantly greater risk of things going wrong, and especially in the one-day races, which are quite hectic.
"Pogačar is taking a risk in doing those one-day races."
On current reckoning, Pogačar and Vingegaard will reach the 2023 Tour de France with the same number of race days, Ekstra Bladet noted, each totalling 17.
Nearly half of those for Vingegaard coming in the Critérium du Dauphiné. Pogačar’s more intensive spring, which includes this weekend's Amstel Gold Race, is balanced by the mid-June's five-day Tour of Slovenia being the only race on his program after Liège. Pogačar has 10 wins in his 2023 palmarès, one up on Vingegaard.
"Vingegaard will see how well he’s going from Itzulia Basque Country, but it would have been another race if Pogačar had been taking part," Rasmussen reasoned. "It's hard to see Jonas getting a minute on him" – his GC margin at the end of the race – "and he probably wouldn't have got three wins."
"I still think Pogačar still has an advantage regarding the Tour, because what he did in the Tour of Flanders was exceptional," Rasmussen concluded.
