Jonas Vingegaard opens up on Tadej Pogacar rivalry: "I see him win these races and I'm fascinated by who he is as a cyclist"
Cycling
Jonas Vingegaard vs Tadej Pogacar has been the defining Grand Tour rivalry of the 2020s. In 2025, it is expected that chapter 5 of their epic Tour de France tug of war will take place and after Pogacar reclaimed the Maillot Jaune last time out, Vingegaard admits improvement is needed to close the gap.
At the 2024 Tour de France, Vingegaard was soundly bettered by his arch-rival. Other than one incredibly comeback to stage a stage victory on stage 11, the Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader simply didn't have the answers to the questions posed by Pogacar. That's not to say the Dane wasn't performing at an incredibly high level himself though. "This year was better for me than it's ever been. It's probably been better for him too," Vingegaard explains in quotes collected by Ekstra Bladet. "I can also look at my performance, compared to what I could do in the past, this has been much better on the Plateau de Beille. I remember that the first year I won the Tour (2022, ed.) is almost nothing compared to the wattage we rode this year."
A big reason for this, is the massive step of improvement seemingly taken by Pogacar in 2025, as he rode to a record breaking season of individual brilliance. "I could see what watts I was doing and he was riding away from me, so it's deserved," Vingegaard assesses. "To beat him, I need to go up a level again next year, and I think I can do that."
In fact, the success of Pogacar, is actually proving a big motivational factor for Vingegaard's winter preparation. "I see him win these races and I'm fascinated by who he is as a cyclist," the Dane comments. "I think he's a fantastic cyclist, but it's clear that in everyday life I focus on myself. Here I make myself as good as possible for the races I have to do. I have to hope that it's enough to beat him."
Legendary moments of the 2024 cycling season: Tadej Pogacar drops Jonas Vingegaard on Plateau de Beille, on his way to the greatest climbing performance of ALL-TIME and to the Giro-Tour double.🚀 Surreal day, he made us doubt our stopwatches LOL.pic.twitter.com/89qkPx5w4y
— Mihai Simion (@faustocoppi60) December 23, 2024
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- i don’t know nearly as much about bruyneel or hincapie as most of us do about lance, but we judge people by the company they keep. i hand no idea what psychological problems the other two have, but there’s gotta be something pretty severely wrong with them if they continue to choose to be close to armstrong.OCexile26-12-2024
- Ayuso and Rodriguez are only 22 and 23. Don't pressure it as they're still so sooo young.
James2631826-12-2024 - Not sure that can be true, in that USA Cycling is part of the UCI.acem8226-12-2024
- Oh, and yes: I am no psychiatrist/psychologist, but Bruyneel and Texas Turd are both sociopaths. It goes well beyond "protect my world and anyone would" that is the usual zeitgeist of their bullshit. No normal person has Bob Roll go at Greg Lemond with an audio recording device at Ron Keifel's bike shop...for example.EricJensenRidesBikes26-12-2024
- Funnier: this website keeps giving credo to their ramblings. In this case, why in any possible way would Boonen want to create a fantasy world to attach himself to these two clowns when more likely he would want to forget he was even there? Laughable.EricJensenRidesBikes26-12-2024
- A sociopath is an informal term used to describe someone with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), a mental health condition characterized by a chronic pattern of disregard for social norms, laws, and the rights and feelings of others.EricJensenRidesBikes26-12-2024
- Rowe spent his whole career on one team being nothing more than a thug for Skyneos. I have no idea why another team would want import this type of person into their program.Sweep26-12-2024
- “CyclingUpToDate would like to extend it's condolences to family and friends of Pascal.” Paging a copy editor….menk26-12-2024
- 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