"I am sure Jonas Vingegaard will be at the start of the Tour. In top form" - Joxean Matxin laughs off Visma's talk of 50/50 chance
Cycling
According to the most recent news from camp Team Visma | Lease a Bike surrounding the Tour de France is that two-time, back to back, defending Maillot Jaune winner Jonas Vingegaard has a 50/50 chance of making the Grand Depart in Florence later this month.
Speaking to Het Nieuwsblad, UAE Team Emirates boss Joxean Matxin has laughed off these claims of Team Visma | Lease a Bike. "Meanwhile he is on altitude training and I catch everywhere that he has been working very hard for weeks," Matxin details knowingly. "No, I am sure Jonas will be at the start of the Tour. In top form. And even if he is only 95 per cent ready at the start, that doesn't say much. Jonas is the type that grows at the Tour. Especially in this Tour, with that leaden final week, that is not insurmountable. Just give me those duels of last year again!"
Twelve months ago, it was Matxin's team leader, Tadej Pogacar who was facing a race against time to recover from injury ahead of the Tour de France. In the end, despite the Slovenian's best efforts, 2nd behind Vingegaard was the best Pogacar could manage. "We all know the story of last year: his fall in Liège, his fracture on the wrist... The level in cycling is so high that anyone who cannot finish his preparation one hundred per cent pays a price," Matxin recalls. "Then Tadej was not in perfect form. He is going to be now."
"This is the best Pogacar I have ever seen," Matxin continues, confidently backing his man to claim a third career Tour de France triumph. "Last year was a special year, with that crash, but since then he has grown again. Which is not illogical. He has yet to turn 26. You can see that in his data too. Not that they are gigantically better compared to past years, but they are still improving."
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- lol yeahmij08-11-2026
- I know, their headlines can be so misleading. Pidcock had a great season with 5 wins. and some solid 2nds. no reason to take away from that with a fake headline.mij08-11-2026
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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📊🚹Best male climbers based on results in past 3 years (💻@wielerorakel model*): 99 | 🇸🇮Pogačar 98 | 🇩🇰Vingegaard 96 | 🇸🇮Roglič 94 | 🇺🇸Kuss 93 | 🇬🇧Yates A., 🇧🇪Evenepoel 92 | 🇵🇹Almeida, 🇪🇸Mas, Vlasov 🔗rank and compare: cyclingoracle.com/en/riders
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