The riders will face some hilly kilometres on Saturday and Sunday. In the Ardèche Classic, the riders will have to deal with somewhat longer climbs than the day after. On Sundays, the course consists of short, steep climbs.

In addition to Roglic and Vingegaard, Sepp Kuss, Gijs Leemreize, Steven Kruijswijk and Sam Oomen will start in both races on behalf of Team Jumbo-Visma.

Roglic is looking forward to seeing where he and his teammates stand. “I’ve had a good winter and have been able to complete my training kilometres. I feel good, but that’s not saying much. When you do sprints on your own, you are always the fastest. In the races, you can really see where you stand. The results in these races aren’t the most important for me. These races are more about getting back into a racing rhythm because my goals are later this season.”

Vingegaard also makes his first race kilometres of the season in Les Boucles Drôme-Ardèche. The 2021 Tour de France revelation is working through the French races towards his first stage race of this year. At the beginning of March, the Dane will be at the start of Tirreno-Adriatico.