"Everyone complains instead of thinking strategically" - Former Tour de France winner criticises Tadej Pogacar's rivals

2024 has been a season dominated by UAE Team Emirates and Tadej Pogacar. In the opinion of one former Tour de France winner though, as brilliant as the Slovenian and his teammates have been over the last twelve months, Pogacar's rivals in the peloton could be doing much more.

"It's not forbidden to be intelligent and creative," explains the 1996 Tour de France winner and compatriot of Jonas Vingegaard, Bjarne Riis via the Cafe Eddy podcast. "If you're up against someone who's stronger than you, the only way you can beat them is by thinking smart. You have to be smarter than the others."

According to Riis though, that kind of creative thinking has been in short supply when it comes to tackling the all-conquering Tadej Pogacar of late. "Everyone complains instead of thinking strategically," the 60-year-old Dane bemoans. "When I look at the screen, I can just see that there is not enough strategic thinking in cycling. They complain that the others are riding too fast. Well, then do something about it."

After a glittering career as a rider that included the aforementioned Tour de France victory in 1996, Riis turned his hand to being a sports director. Despite his frustrations at the modern peloton though, the Dane has no intention of trying to get back into a team car and changing it himself. "I've tried that, and I don't see any reason to do it. I think I've met too much resistance on my path in relation to my philosophy. I don't want to compromise on that," he explains. “I have a clear philosophy about how to coach and how to run a cycling team and how things should be done. It was something I got tired of in the end. Why should I sit around discussing it? Patrick Lefevere said to me: 'Well, Bjarne, cycling is different today.' It's not. I really don't believe that."