ANALYSIS: Visma's signing that should make UAE very afraid ahead of 2025 Tour de France
Cycling
After Tadej Pogacar's victory at the 2024 Tour de France, Team Visma | Lease a Bike's reaction had to come by 2025. The Slovenian's rivalry with Jonas Vingegaard right now is on the side of the UAE star. And the Dutch team knows it.
For that reason, Team Visma | Lease a Bike has taken this past off-season very seriously. In the cycling transfer market, several moments have been realized. But none as outstanding as the signing of Simon Yates. The Brit has immediately become the favourite to serve as Vingegaard's super domestique at the 2025 Tour de France. Given his track record and talent, UAE Team Emirates - XRG should be very fearful of the duo of Yates and the Dane.
Simon Yates already knows what it's like to win a grand tour. In 2018 he took the red jersey at the Vuelta a Espana. He also has 6 stage wins in the Giro d'Italia, 2 in the Tour and 2 in the Vuelta itself. He is one of the best cyclists in the world in the Grand Tour over the modern era.
Moreover, he himself is aware that his arrival at Visma is mainly to help Vingegaard. A similar case to that of Mikel Landa when he signed for Soudal Quick-Step. For the Belgian team the move worked out wonderfully, with the Basque 5th overall in the 2024 Tour and key to Remco Evenepoel being able to climb the podium.
The battle of the domestique brothers?
The fight between UAE and Visma for the Tour de France 2025 looks set to be beautiful. Along with what Pogacar and Vingegaard can do to each other in the grand finale, we will also be able to enjoy the battle between the "domestique brothers".
Adam Yates is likely to be part of the UAE lineup to serve Pogacar. With Simon Yates now on the other side, the feeling is that everything has become much more equal between the two teams. And that's not to mention the Joao Almeida, Sepp Kuss and company who could also be key to the fight.
I would change the phrase in the heading of this article from "very afraid" to "watch him a bit".
He may not be concerned, exactly, but I guarantee you he is fully conscious of this move: Kuss, Jorgensen, and Yates make for a very powerful domestique, and I think the balance of power may have shifted to Visma.
Yates is a GT winner, he will be a big part of setting the pace in he high mountains just like Kuss has done in previous years. He is a big name for Visma.
Yes, if Kuss (also a GT winner lest we forget, the same one) is back in form though, he’ll be lead domestique, Yates will be the domestique’s domestique and Jorgensen will do the relay between the two. Jonas will be on Tadej’s wheel somewhere else ;-) Guess we won’t be seeing any brothers escaping together anymore now.
Yes, the brothers days of escaping together are gone lol. I do hope Kuss will be back in form this year, he had such a bad year with sickness in '24. I also would love to see Jorgensen have a great year as well. For such a big guy he might be the most underrated rider on that team, if any of them are underrated.
And haven’t we kind of forgotten, a certain WVA, no-one is analysing what he could add to the sauce.
If you’re going to mention Kuss, you should mention Jorgensson too, potentially he could bring just as much.
Correct. Jorgenson is a great rider. He has a big tank and could be a GT winner himself at some point.
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- I was wondering what really happened, if he was just not yet peaking at this time of the year, or if this just wasn't going to be his year, but apparently the accident affected him.Ride197413-03-2025
- There is good in everyone. Hitler was kind to his dog wasn't he?Cyclingsbestfan13-03-2025
- We all hope it, like parents, but those type of children only learn from their own mistakes ;-) Yeah, feel lucky I heal pretty fast, even at advanced age but we don’t really get to see how things look under their clothes. For sure they have better pain killers but I don’t ever remember feeling much pain when in a state to ride on, the adrenaline seems to just focus on that one objective. Later is another thing, I once (only time ever) fainted in the shower an hour post accident when trying to clean a wound, luckily another rider who’d witnessed it had sacrificed himself not to leave my side.Mistermaumau13-03-2025
- Yep. But if you hit something stationary at 40 mph, your life is changed. And even just sliding ... the fastest I ever crashed was 35 mph in a race, and it was almost 2 months before the last scabs disappeared. These guys heal much faster, but the pain is the same. I am hoping P is more careful so that he has a long career that ends when he decides. But he doesn't seem built that way.
Barney13-03-2025 - He’s lucky Mohoriç warned him not to follow (and that for once he listened to wiser) because the way M only just avoided disaster that day, T would have done a Senna. Regarding the 40mph, it’s not usually hitting the deck that’s crucial, it’s acrobatics and stationary objects that refuse to move much that do the damage.Mistermaumau13-03-2025
- If you consider ALL the details, things were not as bad as we’ve come to expect from organisers, especially lately, however much can still be improved, especially communication wise. I guess saying the race is neutralised is maybe not enough to be clear in the “heat” of the action, perhaps adding a warning to stay tuned and not remove earpieces, to know if and when the race might resume would help. Weather is completely random so it can go both ways when things reach a limit and BOTH sides should always be prepared for that. As for harshness of conditions, 10cm of snow is less dangerous and difficult than sleet or iced roads, riding on without stopping is easier than restarting after cooling off, everyone is different, Hinault was kind of a European average built man with his 173/68 at the time, Jonas could play an extra in a concentration camp scene, all respect for him and all the others for finishing, some people’s moaning (from their comfy sofa) made it sound like he abandoned before complaining.Mistermaumau13-03-2025
- I was thinking the exact same thing as Kelly in the moment before the crash: if Pidcock is backing off your wheel while bombing a descent, you are going too fast. So many people talk about how dominant Pogacar is and how boring this makes cycling. However, with the stomach-churning risks he takes, his era could end on any day, just as it did for Froome and Bernal. I was surprised to see him remount after hitting the deck at 40-plus mph. I understand why his girlfriend can't even watch his descents. I am going to enjoy his time while it lasts.Barney13-03-2025
- Another brain dead take from the org. While they stayed cozy in their warm carsabstractengineer13-03-2025
- Ahhh, and there was me watching and thinking we might finally get an uncommented article. Now you leave Frieders no choice but to participate ;-)Mistermaumau13-03-2025
- I don’t think that was the sense he was conveying. Anyway, can’t change him much more, Tadej is a little like the Senna of cycling, will do as he wants and has to live with the consequences. MAYBE the fall will swing the heart/mind balance. For cycling popularity and fan discussions it won’t hurt to now have a Tour with a fit Jonas and Tadej having to recover from a nasty crash at P-R.Mistermaumau13-03-2025