Defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard is determined to win the world's biggest cycling race for the second year in a row, but the Danish star has less pressure when it comes to contending for the win in France this July than in 2022. He feels there is less pressure.

Vingegaard, who finished second in the 2021 Tour de France and defeated Tadej Pogachar for his first Grand Tour win in 2022, believes he has a good chance to repeat his victory this summer.

The 26-year-old is currently putting the final pieces of his preparation in place, scouting the Puy de Dome for stage 9 of the Tour de France on Friday and crossing with Enric Mas (Movistar) and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers). Both Mas and Bernal will be important rivals in July and, like Vingegaard, will participate in the Criterium du Dauphiné, which starts Sunday in Chambon-sur-Lac. But the Jumbo-Visma racer told a small group of reporters in an interview before returning to racing after a two-month break that the morale boost he will get thanks to his 2022 Tour win will spur him on no matter which opponent he faces in four weeks, including Pogachar.

"Winning the Tour is a big confidence booster. A lot can happen, and I have to be at my best level, but I think I can do it," Vingegaard said.

Regarding the heightened expectations surrounding him as the defending champion, Vingegaard said, "The feeling right now is that there is less pressure; I can retire in 10 years and still say I won and be proud of my career."

Vingegaard has only competed in three races this year, but although he lost to both Pogachar and David Gaudou (Groupama-FDJ) in Paris-Nice, he bounced back a few weeks later with an overall win and three stage wins in Ituriá Basque.

At this point, however, he remains cautious about current conditions compared to 2022. I think the spring has been better overall, there were no problems, no illnesses, nothing. But it's hard to compare, and we've changed equipment, so it's hard to say if we're stronger or not."

Vingegaard, who was second in last year's Dauphiné, said his strategy will be to take the eight-day race day by day and see how it goes, rather than looking for specific results. The Dauphiné is a "super nice race," he said, explaining why he returned to the Dauphiné for the third year in a row. But his eyes were on the big prize in July. If I had to choose between the two races, it would be the Tour 100 percent."

"Usually this race doesn't decide who wins the Tour," he noted.

"I never think about it too much. It doesn't make sense to go full throttle on a flat stage. If I get a chance, I'm going to go for it.

"The time trial (in stage 4) will be an advantage. We also need to see how everything goes in the other stages."

"Anyway, I'm looking forward to racing again.

Regarding the duel with Pogachar scheduled for July, Vingegaard expressed hope that the Slovenian would make a full return to the Tour and described the UAE racer's spectacular spring season as "impressive."

The two did not discuss Pogachar's current condition after the accident, and Dane told one journalist somewhat curtly, "You'll have to ask him about that."

"It would be better if he could be at 100% [for the Tour]," Vingegaard said, adding, "I hope he can be at his best. " Buchet also insisted that nothing would change during the summer because of the loss to Pogachar in Paris-Nice.

"Paris-Nice was four months ago, and a lot can happen in that time. He was stronger than me at Tirreno in 2022," Vingegaard noted. 'So I'm taking it easy now. It's not like the Tour will be decided in Paris-Nice."

Meanwhile, Vingegaard is focused on his race program and his team. Jumbo Visma will compete in both the Dauphiné and the Tour de France without Dauphiné champion Primoz Roglic. Another top teammate, Wout Van Aert, will skip the Dauphiné and compete in the Tour de Suisse.

"I know Primoz has a Primoz program, he ran the Giro, he ran the Tour," Van Aert said. At the moment I'm focused on the team I have and I'm very happy with them."

At the Dauphiné, Christophe Laporte, Nathan van Hooydonk, Steven Kruijswijk, and Tiesj Benoot, all important support riders for Vingegaard last July, and before signing with Jumbo-Visma in the winter, 2022 Dylan van Baarle, who played a similar role with Ineos at the Tour, is also included.

Regarding the absence of Wout Van Aert, who won two stages at last year's Dauphiné and led the race for all but one day until the final mountain stage, Wingegaard said he is confident that Van Aert's decision to ride for Switzerland instead will work.

"I am confident that Wout is where he belongs," Vingegaard said, "He has his goals and I have mine. He wanted to be in the Tour de Suisse and I have to respect that.

Despite the absence of a key man like Roglic in Jumbo's lineup, he did not expect Van Aat to step up further than last year's Tour de France. 'It will be difficult,' he said. Wout has already stepped up last year. He was my best helper. If he steps up (any more), he will be a GC candidate instead."

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As for his own progress, he recognizes that while the Dauphiné is another promising step, he is "worried" about COVID-19, which had a major impact at the Giro d'Italia and last year's Tour. Although he was tight-lipped about whether he would abstain from the Tour if he contracted COVID-19 ("I can't answer that," he said.

"Certainly, it's something to be aware of. I was careful last year, and after seeing what happened at the Giro d'Italia, I was a little scared. So we have to stay focused and stay in shape." The team is using single rooms at the hotel." I stay in my room and try not to shake hands or have too much contact with people," he said.

After frankly refusing to give examples of how he changed the overall assembly of the tool from 2022 to 2023, Vingegaard said, "I always try to improve, look back at what worked and what didn't work and make it better. That's what we tried to do this year."

He added, "We've tried to do that again this year.

However, the Dauphiné remains on the program, as it did in 2021 and 2022, and will likely be Vingegaard's last race before the Tour de France. And if there was any doubt that Vingegaard's ambition would not disappear, even if the Dauphiné is not his biggest goal, he settled it with his answer about this race, and about racing in general.

"I want to win, but it's not revenge for what happened before. I just want to do as well as I can every time." Of course, July was no different.

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