"He needed to reassure himself" - Marc Madiot believes Tadej Pogacar has inferiority complex in rivalry with Jonas Vingegaard at Tour de France

Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. It's one of the all time great Tour de France rivalries and although Pogacar is the man to have the early advantage in the 4th chapter of their story, Groupama - FDJ boss Marc Madiot, has seen something that may concern the Slovenian's supporters.

The perhaps telling sign that Madiot believes he has spotted? That Tadej Pogacar has an inferiority complex in his rivalry with the two-time, back to back, defending Tour de France champion. "There have been little words, little phrases, attitudes that suggest that he still needs to reassure himself in relation to Vingegaard," the vastly experienced French team boss explains in conversation with Cyclism'Actu.

On stage 4 of the 2024 edition, Pogacar launched a brutal attack on the Col du Galibier, one which eventually gained the UAE Team Emirates leader 50 seconds on his arch-rival by the time the pair had both crossed the line. Despite the relative lack of sharpness for Vingegaard however, given his lengthy injury lay off, Madiot believes Pogacar is not yet sure of himself in the fight for the Maillot Jaune.

"Has Pogacar now won the Tour? Yes, but... maybe not," Madiot declares thoughtfully. "I'm not far from thinking that perhaps there was a bit of a complex between Pogacar and Vingegaard. I think there was a little Pogacar complex, as surprising as that may seem. UAE Team Emirates really needed this 4th stage to take a break. He really battled at the top to take the bonuses and a few seconds, which shows that he needed to reassure himself, even though he's very strong."

"He has to ward off a bit of fate with Vingegaard because even though he knew that the Dane would be diminished after his terrible fall, he perhaps didn't expect him to be at this level. After that, was Vingegaard as injured as he said? That's another subject. But I'm waiting to see how things develop," Madiot concludes. "We could have three scenarios: one where Vingegaard starts strong and fades away, we could have one where Vingegaard goes from strength to strength and we could also have a final scenario where Pogacar, even if he won the Giro easily, finds himself in 3rd week with a few shortcomings. All that shows that it's worth watching the Tour this year, but what's certain is that the UAE team is extremely strong and if everything goes according to plan, I can see 2 or 3 of them on the podium in Paris (Correction: In Nice, ed.)."