"Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar are already trying to get inside each other’s heads" - Rival team boss comments on stage 1 chaos at Tour de France

Stage 1 of the 2025 Tour de France was one of the most chaotic openings to a Grand Tour in a long while. Crashes, GC drama and only around 30 riders competing for the sprint win gave analysts plenty to talk about. According to Groupama - FDJ team boss Marc Madiot however, the most interesting thing to note was the early sparring between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard.

"The first day of the Tour is always complicated, even when the route is more straightforward — so with a tough, technical course like today’s, it’s bound to create tension," Madiot reflected in post-stage 1 comments collected by Cyclism'Actu. "There were abandonments, and you could see how on edge the peloton was — no one wanted to lose their position."

As mentioned, one of the points of note was the sparring of Vingegaard and Pogacar, with the former and his Team Visma | Lease a Bike teammates splitting the peloton in the wind and ultimately distancing Maillot Jaune rivals Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel. "Even when you're focused, big names can still get caught out, which just shows how tricky it was," Madiot reflects. "That’s normal — Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar are already trying to get inside each other’s heads. It’ll be like that for several days now — they’ll be testing, probing, trying to get a mental edge. That’s the name of the game."

As far as his own team's performance went however, Madiot is relatively happy with two top-10 finishers in Clement Russo and Paul Penhoet. "The lads were alert — we had three in the front group, then just behind that were Guillaume Martin and Valentin Madouas," he explains. "We could’ve even had Lewis Askey up there if he hadn’t had a problem with his derailleur, so overall it was a good day. Solid work."