The fight against time continues. The sighting of Jonas Vingegor's training in Mallorca this week raised expectations that the Tour de France champion would return to the race in time for the Grand Department Store in Florence, but his Visma Reese bike team remained shy about participating in this year's race. to.

While visiting Giro d'Italia on Thursday, Coach Richard Plug told Cyclingnews that he would only ride the tour if Vingegaard was "100%" [29]. Plugge added that there is no exact deadline for the decision on Dane's participation.

Vingegaard suffered a massive crash in Itzulia Basque Country on May 4, punctured his lungs and fractured his collarbone, and spent 12 days in a hospital in Vitoria. Earlier this month, Vingegaard returned on a road ride at his home in Glyngøre, Denmark, and this week he was spotted training at Coll de Soler in Mallorca.

"He's doing well, he's going really well," Plug told cycling News. "But whether he can really be 100% at the start of the Tour de France will have to be decided later. We need to see how it will evolve in the coming weeks. We have good hope, he is progressing well. But we also want to give him and ourselves time to make good decisions.

"He is a defensive Tour de France champion and now he has won 2 consecutive times. But if he goes, he must be 100%. The Tour de France is not a race where you can enter with less hope. Hope is never a good start, so you need to make sure that he will be 100%.

The build-up of Vingegaard's original tour was expected to feature altitude camps on either side of the Sierra Nevada and Tignes at the Criterium Dauphine. His revised schedule is completely fluid, but the plug showed he was less likely to race before the tour.

"I think adding a race is the best and most controlled way to work after such a crash, so you get more from training,"

Vingegaard's coach, Tim Heemskerk, recently said that riders can return to something that approaches their normal training load this week. He told L'Équipe that he wanted to be able to do that. He also indicated that Vingegaard plans to spend at least some time at altitude camp before the team's last tour at Tignes. Plug, for his part, claimed that there was no deadline set to determine Vingegaard's location in the Visma line-up.

"The deadline is not fixed. "At a certain moment, we will know. But it is unclear when that moment will be.

After sweeping all 3 grand tours in 2023, Visma-Lease A Bike has been plagued by bad luck this season. Cian Uijtdebroeks' promising Giro debut ended with illness last week, but Wout van Aert's classic campaign was halted by injuries in a mass crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen.

Van Aalto, who was due to ride the Giro, is currently vying for a spot in Visma's tour lineup, but like Vingegaard, his participation depends on his physical fitness and the Belgians returned to action on a tour of Norway on Thursday and came a little under three minutes in the opening stage.

"We expect Wout to come to the Tour de France, but we have to see how it goes and how it evolves on the Norwegian tour," said Pugh. Usually we plan a year and keep the plan. We need to adjust that this year, but it's also part of the sport.

Vuelta a Espana champion Sepp Kus seems most likely to lead Visma - leasing a bike on tour will miss Vingegaard, but Plugge refused to even ask questions. "We will respond to that when the tour starts," he said.

Vingegaard's participation in the tour remains questionable, but his chief rival Tadej Pogağar (UAE Team Emirates) is in full control at the Giro and is in the first leg of the double he tried. In Padua on Thursday night, Poganyal was asked by him for Plug's claim that he would only ride the tour if Vingegor was in "100%" of his condition.

"I mean, last year, not 100%, we were still fighting for victory," said Pogagnal, whose preparation for the 2023 tour was hampered by a broken wrist that he sustained at Liege・Bastogne・Liege. "You never know what will happen. There is a possibility that the table will rotate. But I think Jonas will be 100%, so I think we'll see him on tour at this best.

Vingegaard has beaten pogañar on the last 2 tours, making his tour debut in 2021, ranked 2nd after the Slovenians. Pogañar's remarkable dominance in the giro claimed that it was hard for Pluge to judge given the calibre of the Italian opposition, but suggests he will prove an even more questionable foe on May 7 this year.

"I think what's missing here is that you don't have Evenepoel or Roglië or Jonas Vingegaard to compete with," Plugge said. "Unfortunately it is. In the Tour de France, you need to see what the real level is.

Giro d'Italia-You have unlimited access to all of Italy's coverage - reporting of journalists, breaking news, analysis on the ground from every stage of the race and more. Learn more.