“Jonas Vingegaard needs to move up in all areas" to match Tadej Pogacar admits the Dane's coach Tim Heemskerk

The epic Maillot Jaune rivalry between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard took another twist in 2024 as the Slovenian leader of UAE Team Emirates regained cycling's most iconic jersey. If Vingegaard is to hit back in 2025, there is work to be done.

“Pogacar raised the bar higher this year. Now we, Jonas and the team, need to close that gap,” Team Visma | Lease a Bike coach Tim Heemskerk told Velo. “With proper preparation and some changes in his training and nutrition, then of course Jonas can win the Tour again. But there’s no doubt, we need to step up in all areas to be able to make that happen.”

That's not to say Heemskerk doesn't believe Vingegaard can step up to Pogacar's level though, with no stone set to be left unturned in that quest. “We need to look at all areas of training for Jonas,” he explains. “We saw the numbers Pogacar and Evenepoel did on Plateau de Beilles, but also on the San Luca in stage 2. Pogacar is absolute top-top on all types of effort. We need to work toward that.”

“What Pogacar has done this year is beyond impressive. He seems to have almost no weak spots," continues Heemskerk. “Jonas needs to move up in all areas to match that. So we need to look at threshold, durability, fatigue resistance. We also need to improve his explosivity, which is very difficult. That takes time.”

“Having people say Jonas needs to be 110 percent to beat Pogacar doesn’t annoy me, it’s true. And that motivates me. I’m pretty sure that motivates Jonas too,” concludes the Visma coach. “We need to evaluate and look at everything to beat Pogacar. It’s about next week, winter, pre-season. Everything until the Tour. We know we have a very big task ahead of us. We need to look at all areas to design Jonas’ life to be able to close the gap. We have to see if we can organize it so he has his family, the new baby, but can still get a bit more out of the training.”