Jonas Vingegaard will race for the first time since his Tour de France victory at the CRO Race from Tuesday onwards.
Vingegaard joins an impressive array of stars for the Croatian race, with Geraint Thomas, Damiano Caruso and Majej Mohoric also on the start list.
“It is a good preparation course for Lombardia,” Vingegaard said. “I needed some rest after the Tour, but now I’m building up again. We wanted to do things a little differently with the team this year and that’s why we’re here.”
“We will start with a strong team. In my childhood I already went on holiday in Croatia and then also rode my bicycle. It is a beautiful country,” he added.
“The last three weeks I was in Spain to prepare for the remaining races. I hope my form is already good enough, but we will see that in the race this week. It’s a nice race, although I would have preferred a real finish uphill. Yet the course is still very hilly with some mountains on the way. I look forward.”
The race begins with a 223.5km stage from Osijek to Ludbreg before concluding on Sunday with a relatively flat 158km stage travelling from Sveta Nedelja to Zagreb.
