Defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard will be out of racing action for nearly two months after his knockout victory in Ituriá Basque last week.

The Jumbo-Visma star outclassed his rivals with a hat-trick of overall and stage wins over the six-day race. [Last year, he competed in both La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but failed to finish either. This time around, he is absent from both, in contrast to his Tour de France rival Tadey Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates), whose race program is heavy on classics.

"It's a very sensible program," Danish cycling expert and former pro Michael Rasmussen told Ekstra Bladet (open in new tab). The formula suits him and seems like a good plan."

"It is right for him to have many days without racing. When competing in a bicycle race, all else being equal, the risk of things going wrong is quite high, especially in a one-day race, which can be quite hectic.

"Pogachar is taking a risk in a one-day race."

According to current calculations, Pogachar and Vingegaard will compete in the 2023 Tour de France in the same number of days. Vingegaard will compete in the Criterium du Dauphiné for nearly half of those days. Pogachar's spring concentration of races, including this weekend's Amstel Gold Race, is balanced by the five-day Tour of Slovenia in mid-June, the only race after Liège. Pogachar's record in 2023 is 10 wins, one ahead of Vingegaard.

"Vingegaard will see how he's doing from Ituria Basque, but it would have been a different race had Pogachar participated," Rasmussen reasoned. It would be hard for Jonas to beat him by a minute" -- his GC margin at the end of the race -- "and he probably wouldn't have won three races."

"As for the Tour, I think Pogachar still has the advantage.