"He races too little - what is he paid all year for?" - Roger De Vlaeminck criticizes Jonas Vingegaard

In the Criterium du Dauphiné, the superiority of Tadej Pogacar over Jonas Vingegaard is being tremendous. The Slovenian has defeated his Danish counterpart in two summit finishes in a row and, with one stage to go, is more than 1 minute ahead of him in the general classification.

For Vingegaard and Visma | Lease a Bike, this situation is far from ideal. With the Tour de France just around the corner, the feeling was only really good in the time trial, but it didn't help much.

Perhaps Jonas Vingegaard is suffering from riding so few races. This is something the Dane has often been criticized for in recent years. Now, with the Tour approaching and with what we saw in Dauphiné, legends Eddy Merckx and Roger de Vlaeminck have been the latest to point it out.

"Jonas Vingegaard races very little. And at the Paris-Nice at the beginning of the year he didn't make a good impression on me," Merckx began by pointing out. "It's true that Vingegaard is a good stage racer, but he doesn't race - what is he paid all year for?" added De Vlaeminck forcefully.

It was through Het Nieuwsblad where the two iconic cycling figures had this conversation, where they also talked about the figure of Tadej Pogacar. Although the Slovenian is making history every time he races, De Vlaeminck wanted to make it clear that he still has a long way to go to surpass Eddy Merckx, if ever:

"Today, everybody talks about Tadej Pogacar. But when I watch the races, there is no one like Eddy, not even half, not even Pogacar. Maybe I exaggerate a little bit, but not much," stated Roger De Vlaeminck.

Barring a memorable comeback by Jonas Vingegaard on stage 8, Tadej Pogacar will win his first Criterium du Dauphiné and will continue to add to his already historic list of victories at the age of 26.