"If Jonas Vingegaard can win the Tour de France again this year, I don't understand anything" - Bernard Hinault doesn't hold much hope for Visma leader
CyclingFriday, 28 June 2024 at 10:19
The two time, back to back Tour de France champion, Jonas Vingegaard returns looking for a hat trick in 2024. Given all he's been through earlier this year however, whether or not another Maillot Jaune remains realistic is very much up for debate.
Crashing hard at the Itzulia Basque Country earlier this year, the Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader spent time in intensive care with multiple broken bones and most seriously, a punctured lung and with no race days since, little is known about Vingegaard's form heading into the Tour de France. Conversely, his main rival Tadej Pogacar has been in incredible form, romping to a dominant, near ten minute win at the Giro d'Italia and comes into the Tour somewhere close to his peak.
Few know more about winning the Tour de France than legendary French cycling icon, Bernard Hinault. Despite claiming five Maillot Jaune victories however, and twice winning two in a row, 'the Badger' never managed to complete a hat trick. Knowing what has happened to Vingegaard in the first half of 2024, Hinault admits he would be shocked to see the Dane do what he never could.
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"He fell in the Itzulia Basque Country and has a difficult preparation. If he can win the Tour de France again this year, I don't understand anything about the race," Hinault says in conversation with Het Nieuwsblad. "Compare it to Pogacar's situation last year. He broke his wrist in Liège-Bastogne-Liège at the end of April. In the Tour he was good, but not at his best level. UAE Team Emirates and Team Visma | Lease a Bike are worthy of each other as a team. Visma has had a lot of bad luck, but remains strong across the board. In the end, it is always the leader who decides which team is the strongest. The team will win stages, not the classification."
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- 'The Belgian rider began the Giro with poor form and only in stage 9 did he show the best version of himself...' He came 2nd on stage 1, having been pipped to the line by Mads Pedersen. Hardly poor form. I think he'll be fine.mikebeast29-06-2025
- As I’ve implied before, if there is doping* in Tadej’s case, it is highly unlikely he’s aware of it after that, knowing enough about the MG story and the sad character he is (what kind of person do you need to be to personally go around altering the unflattering facts of their Wiki pages and then adding ridiculously pedantic flattering ones?) I would not put it past him to orchestrate an updated version of what he probably did with Ricco. Not only should the guy be banned from cycling, he should be banned from having children. No better than the most doped and evil rider ever, just a bit smarter maybe. The other guy I don’t know much about but one is enough.Mistermaumau29-06-2025
- Id refine the order... Tadej - we all know whey he is the new GOAT MVDP - without Tadej, how many more monuments would MVDP have Remco - no totally one dimensional, Jonas - Could be higher of he wasn't one dimensional Wout - without his injuries and bad luck he'd be at three Mads - Huge step this year, he is now in this rarefied company by his efforts rather than just inference My opinions, everyone will have their ownslappers6629-06-2025
- That name sounds vaguely familiar.
santiagobenites28-06-2025 - Nice to see some people still have brain inside their skull and upvote what’s so blatantly clear. Yet the majority, the brainwashed people, keep defending unreal performances of this doper day in day out, all year long, beating epo times climbs by multiple minutes while breathing by nose. Keep believing in miracles, keep believing in better nutrition, tires, frames and similar stuff.. it surely improves your climb by 5 minutes 🙂 and all of this with Gianetti and Matxin - two unrepentant dopers (one almost killing himself while doping) laughing their arses off behind his back.
UltimateOpportunist28-06-2025 - You are correct in saying 'winning pro'. Unfortunately, a great number of them remain involved in pro cycling management.santiagobenites28-06-2025
- Let it go, already. Every winning pro of that era was either 1) a doper or 2) lying about not being a doper.bobo28-06-2025
- Wouldn't have Rogla... fat fingers!!slappers6628-06-2025
- I'd still have Wout in there, would have Rogla though Tadej Jonas MVDP Remco Wout Madsslappers6628-06-2025
- I report him, the typical Lion of Keyboard. Continuously accusing people of crimes for free. So sad that people liked his trash.
maria2024202428-06-2025
To Bernard Hinault, the cynics and the sceptics, I’m sorry for you. I’m sorry you can’t dream big and I’m sorry you don’t believe in miracles.
Regarding the insert with :
“For the first time ever, the BIG 6 (Pogačar, Vingegaard, Roglič, Evenepoel, Van der Poel, Van Aert) will be at the startline of the same race (Tour de France). 😍”
C’mon, if you’re going to include Evenepoel you might as well say 7 and render Pidcock happy, and if you’re going to add VDP and VA its obviously for stage wins so then you can give a wink to Cav too, he may no longer be big but he was
But he will proberbly still dominate the race anyway
I think we all can understand pretty darn well what it would mean, and what has been going on if he wins with only a rushed training in the bag !!! Crazier things have happened ofc
So you are already pulling the doping card if pog doesn’t win? BS
For sho!! Some podcast mentioned it, seemed legit! Don’t quote me tho!
Well if Jonas get on top of the right gear then, you know anything or will you? 😉
I think Jonas will struggle due to lack of preparation after those bad injuries. If he wins this Tour then I give him his props but it will be suspicious, I will stop short of calling him out for doping though.
Honestly, these old riders stirring the pot without evidence annoy me so much. Hinault was the one who refused doping checks back in the day.
The doping products available to Hinault in his time wouldn't have really altered the rank order of results vis-a-vis the natural rank order.
For what it's worth, I agree with him that it would be highly suspicious if Jonas is at the same level/higher than he was last year.
It would be an insult to my intelligence if I was supposed to swallow that, no questions asked.
Oh really? We don’t even know how far he went last year since Pog didn’t put up the best fight, plus you forget he (and Pog) are still pretty much youngsters expected to still progress naturally every year. The fact he’s not raced much this year could (not possible to know in advance) even play in his favour as although it is counterinstinctive to take it easier after 2-3 years of progress and going full out, we have seen countless times that athletes, even whole teams (think dream team UK track cycling) flop after winning everything several years running. I refer to this as the macrocycle (which may mean something else to others).
I think you're a propagandist for Visma.
Sorry. Arguments don't pass my genuineness sniff test.
Best get your sixth sense fixed then coz they’re not even on my podium
I trust my judgment just fine. Thanks. No interest in partaking in your kool-aid.
Then don’t waste your time commenting it
I'll continue to call out your specious talking points for what they are.
I used to race with a number of exceptional cyclists who were robbed by dopers.
If there's one thing I can't stomach, it's whataboutism and subterfuge to justify unethical sporting conduct.
“Quit telling people to stop commenting. Seriously, if you don't like what someone says don't read their comments. But stop with the cancel culture.”
Show me one post where I tell someone to stop commenting!
All I did was tell Steeframe if he doesn’t appreciate my contribution (fine with me) he doesn’t need to waste his time commenting it, basically I’m giving him exactly the same advice you’ve tried to give me but I guess you have 2 sets of values.
Spot on punctured lungs normally take upto 6 months to repair. If he is at a level like he was last year the red flag will be raised like it was with his time trial 🤣🤣🤣🙄🙄
Punctured lungs take 6 months to repair, i have had one, if he is anywhere the same level i will be more than suprised and it would raise a red flag with me ,esp after the tt last year where even his directors nearly crashed the car with suprise in the netflix series.
Why do you consider your case to be typical? Have you even tried researching the literature, or simply Googling? The average full recovery time is 6-8 weeks unless there are complications as the ones Chris Horner described in his video.
You may not have read my experiences or you may just have chosen like others they were written with an ulterior motive, so just click and search and discover what the general consensus is.
A not so subtle reference to the unspoken elephant in the room.