"If you don't beat Joao Almeida, you won't beat Tadej Pogacar" - Lance Armstrong far from impressed by Jonas Vingegaard's Paris-Nice showing

Jonas Vingegaard's showing at Paris-Nice 2025 ended badly, with the Dane being forced to abandon the race following a crash on stage 5. Before that though, things were relatively okay for Team Visma | Lease a Bike as Vingegaard and Matteo Jorgenson swapped the Maillot Jaune between each other. According to Lance Armstrong though, Vingegaard's performance left much to be desired.

According to the controversial American, the fact that Vingegaard has been unable to see off the challenge of one of his arch-rival Tadej Pogacar's main domestiques, doesn't exactly bode well for the expected battle at the Tour de France later this summer. "Putting aside the stage where he was injured (stage 6), he has had two real finishes up this year. Both times he has been beaten by Joao Almeida," Armstrong notes with concern on his 'The Move' podcast alongside former team boss Johan Bruyneel. "Almeida is a light version of Pogacar. If you don't beat Almeida, you won't beat Pogacar."

Bruyneel himself though, is less sceptical, seeing Paris-Nice and the prior Volta ao Algarve as merely races used by Vingegaard to build up form ready to peak at the Tour de France. "This was clearly not a 100% Jonas yet. We already saw that in Algarve. He won Algarve, but he was not superior. He lost time on the stage that ended uphill and won the time trial," responds the Belgian. "I'm not worried about Vingegaard at all. He'll probably be fine. He can still train with his injury." 

Read also

Johan Bruyneel believes Visma made a mistake teaming up Vingegaard and Jorgenson at Paris-Nice: "It should've been clear if it would've been my team that this is Jorgenson's race"

"He felt sh*t about leaving the race" - Visma DS provides update on Jonas Vingegaard

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