COPENHAGEN: Raucous crowds at the Copenhagen Tivoli theme park gave the Tour de France the kind of reception organizers could only have dreamed of on Wednesday.

The loudest cheers were for Danish riders such as Jonas Vingegaard and for the biggest names led by champion Tadej Pogacar.

Staff at the park said only rock stars had attracted such crowds before.

Pogacar, who rides for UAE Team Emirates鈥�, said he was excited too.

鈥淎s a team we are ready, and me and as an individual I鈥檓 ready too, so I can鈥檛 wait to start of Friday with the time trial,鈥� the Slovenian said.

Denmark鈥� Crown Prince Frederick attended the official unveiling of the teams, two days before the 21-day Tour opens with a 13km time-trial, the first of three stages in Denmark.

Tivoli Park has around 25 fairground rides. On Wednesday the 176 cyclists added one, riding round a special 1km track to be greeted by thousands of smiling, cheering and filming fans.

鈥淚 feel great, especially today with all these people in Copenhagen, you can only be happy.鈥� said Pogacar.

Title challengers Primoz Roglic and Vingegaard, both of Jumbo Visma, said they believed their team鈥檚 two-leader strategy could finally deliver cycling鈥檚 most treasured prize.

Roglic, a Slovenian, came second in 2020 and Vingegaard in 2021, both times behind Pogacar.

鈥淎s long as we work together, doing as good as possible together, we believe that we can beat him,鈥� Roglic said,

Roglic pulled out in week one last year afer a fall and on Wednesday denied feeling threatened by his junior partner Vingegaard, who shone in his absence.

鈥淲e make each other stronger. When you have strong individuals around, the whole team gets stronger,鈥� said the 32-year-old triple Vuelta a Espana winner.

Vingegaard said he and Roglic enjoyed going for a beer together.

鈥淧rimoz and I are good friends also out of bike racing,鈥� said the 25-year-old, , a former fish-factory worker from the small community of Hillerslev on Denmark鈥檚 North Sea coast.

Both Roglic and Vingegaard talked of surviving the first week.Team boss Merijn Zeeman rejected the notion.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 like the term 鈥榮urviving鈥� because we are not afraid. We stay on the bike and stay up front,鈥� Zeeman said of Jumbo鈥檚 tendency to race from the front.

鈥淪urviving sounds like we are not sleeping at night because we are afraid of the first week.鈥�

鈥淚n the best scenario, both of them are better than Pogacar.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 not a secret that Pogacar is the big favorite.

鈥淲e need everybody to be at his top level and we definitely need a two-leader strategy.

The once-mighty Ineos team last won the race with Egan Bernal three years ago.

On Wednesday, 2018 champion Geraint Thomas said he was more of a chaperone to Dani Martinez of Colombia and British rider Adam Yates as they chase Pogacar and Jumbo.

鈥淚ts going to be hard to beat them, but the vibe in the team is as good as ever, we have some good guys, there鈥檚 a good atmosphere and we are looking forward to getting stuck in,鈥� said Thomas, who promised an aggressive race.

鈥淎dam and Dani are the leaders of the team and I want to help them, so I鈥檒l be swearing at them at 60kmph in the wind, and I鈥檓 going to enjoy that.鈥�

Yates has just recovered from Covid-19, but was looking relaxed and happy.

鈥淚t鈥檒l be every man for himself,鈥� Yates said.

鈥淢e and Poggo had some good battles. I just hope to be at my best.鈥�

Later on Wednesday, the Tour teams were due to parade in central Copenhagen with excitement building toward Friday鈥檚 Grand Depart, with Ineos rider Filippo Ganna favorite in a downtown time-trial.

鈥淚t would be nice to wear the yellow jersey, nothing is easy but I want to try and put that in my museum,鈥� the Italian said.

鈥淲e鈥檒l see Friday if we can all celebrate together.鈥�