‘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.

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.

“Everyone saw the problems of Pogacar from Liege and his recovery process,” explained Gilbert.

“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. I expect Jumbo-Visma to go full from Day 1 and give him as much a gap as possible and hoping he will not come back before the end of the Tour. So I think it will be an interesting start to the Tour.”

INEOS haven’t picked an obvious contender for the yellow jersey and appear to instead be targeting stage wins.

Gilbert said: “I think they know that Jumbo-Visma are really strong, and Tadej Pogacar can be strong. So they know that fighting for the win is not easy for them, for two or three years [now].

“So I think they did the right choice to go for stages, to go for the jersey – like the KOM jersey. There are still big goals, if you win stages plus jerseys.

“They don’t have a rider for GC [who is strong] enough, we saw it again with Geraint Thomas, he was beaten by Primoz Roglic in the Giro d’Italia. So I think it was a smart choice [with their line-up].”

“I think that what Bernal is doing today, it’s already amazing, after his crash. Maybe nobody will believe that he is already able to race at this level today, but he’s working, he’s still on the recovering process and I think he’s going to improve during this Tour, and maybe we’re going to see him fighting with the best climbers towards the end of the Tour.

“He’s a big engine so he will become better and better. About the others [riders in the team having GC prospects], doing a top 10 in a Grand Tour is always something, but I think the most important for them will be to chase stages. If by chasing a stage a top-10 finish will come, it’s a bonus but I don’t think that this is a priority.”

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