Tadej Pogacar has revealed his injured wrist still needs more time to heal, but the UAE Team Emirates star remains confident of his Tour de France chances.
Pogacar was in imperious form this year before breaking his wrist in a crash during the Liege–Bastogne–Liege at the end of April, causing severe disruption to his preparations for the tour, which starts in Bilbao, Spain on Saturday.
The 24-year-old Slovenian returned to competition last week by winning the time trial and road race at the National Championships but the Tour de France – raced over three weeks and 3339.5km against the best cyclists in the world – is a different proposition altogether.
“The wrist is not completely fine,” Pogacar 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.”
Pogacar said only full speed racing will determine whether he can give his best.
“We will see in the race itself," he said. "I had 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.”
Pogacar, who won the Tour de France in 2020 and 2021, was denied a hat-trick of titles by Team Jumbo-Visma's Jonas Vingegaard, settling for second behind the Dane.
Once again, the two are expected to battle for the general classification yellow jersey, and while Pogacar insisted Vingegaard is the big race favourite, he is fully focused on himself, not on his main rival.
“I have my performance in my mind, I try to focus on our racing as it’s not only Jumbo-Visma (against us). There are many more teams. In cycling you need to focus on yourself,” he said.
“Last year was a big experience for everybody and we will try to be better this year. Last year I was good enough to win but Jonas was stronger at certain points in the race so I will try to be careful this time. We will be trying to do our thing and win it.”
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 to Pogacar.
“The first week is going to be really tough, explosive. When I first saw the route I was excited by the first week but with my injury I’m a bit less excited by it now,” he said with a smile.
While Pogacar has stressed that Vingegaard should be viewed as the heavy favourite to win the Tour de France, the defending champion would not be drawn into mind games.
"It doesn’t matter who says who the favourite is but at the end of the day it comes down to who is in the best shape," Vingegaard said on Thursday. "I can also say he is the big favourite."
Vingegaard's Jumbo-Visma teammate Wout van Aert said: "I think it's mind games."
Vingegaard beat Pogacar last year thanks to a brutal team attack in the ascent to the Col du Granon, which left the Slovenian stunned and eventually having to settle for second place overall.
Nicknamed the 'Baby Cannibal' in reference to the great Eddy Merckx and the Belgian's take-no-prisoner approach, Pogacar is likely to start the race with all guns blazing and Vingegaard is expecting no less from his main rival.
"Actually yes I would expect him to attack (early in the race), a bit like last year," Vingegaard, 26, said. "I'll just have to be ready for it. We will need to do our best and see what we can do.
"There will be a lot of super hard stages," he added. "I'm well prepared and I'm where I want to be."
Tour de France 2023 team line-ups and route info
