"Jonas Vingegaard should never have won a Tour, given the difference in class to Tadej Pogacar" - Jose de Cauwer's harsh assessment of Visma leader
Cycling
Over recent years, the showdowns between Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar have defined the Tour de France every summer. In terms of years they've gone head-to-head, both have taken two victories over the other, but according to Belgian cycling expert Jose de Cauwer, the Visma leader can count himself lucky at this.
Evaluating the potential of his compatriot Remco Evenepoel to take the Maillot Jaune in the coming years for Het Nieuwsblad, De Cauwer throws some shade at Vingegaard. "As long as Pogacar maintains this level, there will remain a clear difference," the Belgian analyst begins his assessment. "I really don't dare say that Remco will never win the Tour. In terms of talent, I certainly don't rate Vingegaard higher than Evenepoel. Actually, Vingegaard should never have won a Tour, given the difference in class to Pogacar."
More than a criticism of either Vingegaard or Evenepoel though, De Cauwer insists his comments are more of a big piece of praise to Pogacar. "He can steer incredibly. I saw something of him in Lombardy. He rides through everything with elegance," he explains, noting how Pogacar's bike-handling differs from some of the other notable talents in modern history. "That is different from Peter Sagan. He also rode among them, but you watched him with clenched buttocks. Pogacar is one of the best pilots in the peloton, together with Mathieu van der Poel."
After taking the disappointment of losing his Maillot Jaune back to Pogacar in 2024, Vingegaard is set to focus intently on regaining the most iconic jersey in all of professional cycling in 2025. Given the record breaking and all conquering season that the Slovenian had last year though, if the Dane could complete the comeback in France this summer, it would arguably go down in Tour de France history as one of the most impressive victories of all time.
Jonas and Tadej were only a few seconds apart at the end of the second week of the 2023 Tour, and looked equally tired. But on the last rest day Jonas stated, as if it were a fact, that the Tour would be won by minutes, not seconds. Which was prophetic, as the very next day he blew Tadej away, so to speak. Visma has often said that Jonas's main strength is his ability to stick exactly to their carefully laid plan. While UAE value Tadej's gift for improvising, though that has sometimes spectacularly backfired. It is two very different styles competing, in two very different riders.
Yes he had a great tt on stage 16 and he put mega time into Tadej on stage 17.
It was no surprise really, we know from enough experience that Jonas recovers better and with a rest day that may have made a bigger difference. We also know that once you can tell a rider is tired you know he’s going to underperform significantly when under pressure often leading to cracking (paying the price for riding a tempo you can’t sustain on that day) so it wasn’t exactly clairvoyance if he knew he’d be able to recover and ride “normally”.
Yes and also don't forget that Tadej is about o years younger the Jonas and was technically still developing. It's a funny thing to say but it's true. Remco is still developing to as he's currently 25 until the 25th of January. Age does play a part, either good or bad.
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- agreed. flanders is a beast. i like tadej, but i’m full on rooting for mathieu next sunday.OCexile29-03-2025
- Indeed, strong as ever on the flat, maybe stronger on climbs. There are very few records within reach for contemporary riders (Cabendish had to extend his career to get his and took twice as long as Merckx to equality), this would be one that would be very hard to take away.Mistermaumau29-03-2025
- I thought newspeak was condensing any statement into the smallest number of pertinent words.Mistermaumau29-03-2025
- flanders is mvdp’s favorite race and he’s one win away from being the lone record holder with 4 wins. i’d be very surprised if the gap that pogačar opened in him there 2 years ago wasn’t THE major focus of all his training. and when mathieu has a goal, he turns himself inside out to achieve it. we’ll see next week if he got there, but i’d agree with van avermat’s assessment of van der poel’s fitness.OCexile29-03-2025
- It’s almost like newspeak. It’s classics season, Pogacar’s main rival has always been van der Poel. Then grand tour season will begin, and we will pivot mid sentence and Pogacar’s main rival will have always been Vingegaard. What a season this promises to be. Let’s hope they stay healthy (and Vingegaard gets past the concussion).RidesHills29-03-2025
- Great that he’s decided to do Flanders though his weight remark is irrelevant, Mads is proportionately heavier and MVDP has the same weight but is around 10cm shorter.Mistermaumau29-03-2025
- Yeah, looks slow up there.Jumpyjohn28-03-2025
- lol His aim was well off! MVP was well past him before the guy decided to spit.Cyclingsbestfan28-03-2025
- But you know that’s what makes this website live ;-)Mistermaumau28-03-2025
- I hope he stays upright too and I hope that in this years Paris Roubaix we get a proper good old fashioned man against man race. Can't wait!Cyclingsbestfan28-03-2025