"Jonas was consistently the best behind Pogacar" - Visma DS sees plenty of reason to positive for Vingegaard despite Dauphiné defeat

Jonas Vingegaard was unable to cap off a strong return to racing with a Maillot Jaune win at the 2025 Criterium du Dauphiné. Nevertheless, Team Visma | Lease a Bike sports director Grischa Niermann can see plenty of reason for the Dane to be positive heading into the Tour de France.

“I saw a strong Team Visma | Lease a Bike this week," begins Niermann's post-race analysis following the final stage of the 2025 Criterium du Dauphiné on Sunday afternoon in a press release on Visma's official website. "Jonas was consistently the best behind Tadej Pogacar and finishes second overall. Matteo also did well, ending up sixth. On top of that, we win the team classification. Unfortunately, that’s as much as we could achieve.”

In the end, Vingegaard finished 59 seconds down on his great rival in the general classification, but, as touched upon by Niermann, the Dane was consistently best of the rest, finishing 1:39 better than 3rd overall Florian Lipowitz and 3:22 better off than Soudal - Quick-Step leader Remco Evenepoel.

“Of course, we would have liked to win the Dauphiné”, Niermann admits. “But I’m happy with where we stand as a team at this moment. There’s still some work to be done, but we had anticipated that.”

Now, focus for Vingegaard turns towards the upcoming Tour de France, where once again Tadej Pogacar will be standing in his way. Speaking in his own post-stage article on Sunday, Vingegaard admitted it is the Slovenian who will start the French Grand Tour as the man to beat and seemingly, one with very few weaknesses. "Tadej seems to be very very strong, it's hard to see anything, we have the focus more on us, to be honest, and if I saw something I wouldn't say it here," he analysed. "Of course Tadej is the clear favourite, but I don't think they underestimate anyone."