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'Irritation and frustration of Evenepoel and Pogacar about Vingegaard's tactics' change Tour de France for Thijs Zonneveld: "There are no more jokes and no more hugs"
CyclingWednesday, 10 July 2024 at 11:05
The Tour de France has, in modern times, seen a new array of world-class riders who are not only extremely strong but also very popular and friendly with each other. But that may crack in this Tour, as it is very clear that after a very difficult and tactic stage 9, Jonas Vingegaard and Visma have gotten under the skin of both Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel.
"They hug each other. Give high fives. Have their picture taken together. Speak sweetly and respectfully about the others in every interview. Make jokes under each other's posts on social media. Nothing but respect, nothing but love. Sometimes they seem like best friends, the best riders in this world," Thijs Zonneveld points out in AD. "Matje and Tadje, that rascal Remco, Woutje and that crazy Primoz - and Jonas of course, when he comes down from his mountain. Sometimes it's like they all grew up together. Like they've known each other for twenty years, like they went to nursery school together and kicked a ball around on the field behind the school."
It is indeed a peloton that is more open and friendly with each other and even in interviews, very respectful and complementary of their main rivals. But that may have ended for this Tour de France, at least for the time being. After a week of racing on the defensive, Jonas Vingegaard has certainly not made any friends, and on the opposite he certainly created enemies. Specially after refusing to work with both Remco Evenepoel and Tadej Pogacar on separate occasions, the Dane and Team Visma | Lease a Bike have made their two rivals very irritated on a day where the trio could've potentially won minutes on all of their rivals including Primoz Roglic. Evenepoel specially, fighting for the podium, was annoyed that his good day and many efforts did not give him a single second on what was a big day.
"I secretly like to see a little friction between those few 'aliens'. A little quarrel, a simmering feud, a few digs. Hold and behold: there is a Tour," the Dutch analyst argues. "After Sunday's gravel stage, the irritation and frustration of Evenepoel and Pogacar about Vingegaard's tactics seeped through in their interviews. Pogacar sneered that Vingegaard did not ride at the front because he was afraid of him, Evenepoel insinuated that Vingegaard lacked ‘big balls’. Vingegaard in turn says, when asked if he is worried about his deficit, that he gained seven and a half minutes in two stages last year".
After stage 9 and throughout the rest day specially, there were many back-and-forth in the media between the three riders. Vingegaard responded to Evenepoel's 'no balls' comments and responded to Pogacar as well saying every rider in the Top10 is a rival - even though the Dane spent hours focusing only on the race leader's wheel. Pogacar and Vingegaard look to be entering a psychological battle, as physically the two have not seen too many gaps open in the first week, and both seem equally matched in terms of their chances of winning the race.
"You can feel it in everything. It is bubbling. It is fermenting. The gloves are off," Zonneveld adds. "The app group has fallen silent, there are no more jokes and no more hugs. They leer at each other, they get under each other's skin, they growl under their breath when they meet each other".
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- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024