"Jonas Vingegaard’s team just isn't strong enough" - Former Tour de France winner questions Team Visma | Lease a Bike

Jonas Vingegaard has shown plenty of good signs so far at the 2025 Criterium du Dauphine, boosting the belief that the Dane can challenge Tadej Pogacar at the Tour de France later this summer. In the opinion of one former Tour de France winner, however, the team around Vingegaard currently leaves a lot of room for improvement.

"I'm honestly worried that Jonas’ team just isn't strong enough," analyses the 1996 Maillot Jaune and compatriot of Vingegaard, Bjarne Riis, in his analysis for BT.dk. "Sepp Kuss and the others really need to step up."

Currently, the widely expected Tour de France lineup for Team Visma | Lease a Bike consists of Jonas Vingegaard, Sepp Kuss, Simon Yates, Wout van Aert, Matteo Jorgenson, Tiesj Benoot, Edoardo Affini, and Victor Campenaerts. In this team, Vingegaard has Grand Tour winners Kuss and Yates, all-around superstars in Van Aert and Jorgenson, plus the massive engines of the latter three. Riis though, still isn't totally convinced. 

"Sepp Kuss (who won the Vuelta a Espana back in 2023) hasn’t progressed since then. He’s been a disappointment, and that’s just not good enough. Period. Overall, Visma hasn’t performed well. Their best result in recent seasons is Jonas’ second place in the Tour, and even then he was riding at a lower cadence," says the Dane strongly. "The rest of the team did nothing in the classics. That’s why I’m concerned. They won the Giro with Simon Yates, but that was handed to them after a mistake by UAE. It was a leadership disaster."

Riis also sees a potential downfall for Vingegaard himself. "If I were Pogacar, I’d absolutely attack in crosswinds. When you're lacking race kilometres like Jonas is, it can affect your positioning. You can miss a beat in sidewinds — it gets technical, tactical, and stressful," he explains. "What Vingegaard fears most is crashing. That naturally makes you more cautious, and both he and his team will need to stay sharp. There's no room for fear at the Tour de France. Of course, Jonas might just say, ‘Oh come on, Bjarne, I’ve got this completely under control.’ But that’s how I see it."