"Maybe the Netflix trailer was in his head?!" - Was Tadej Pogacar disrespect what fired up Jonas Vingegaard on Dauphiné opener?

It didn't take long for the sparks to begin to fly at the 2025 Criterium du Dauphiné as the peloton's biggest stars came out firing on stage 1. Among those involved were both Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard and according to one analyst, there could have been an interesting reason behind the fired up showing of the Danish Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader. 

"World Tour tactics were completely thrown out the window and replaced with Tuesday night group ride tactics. An insanely strong but silly attack by Jonas was followed by Tadej somehow working with Mathieu van der Poel, while Remco Evenepoel bridges and takes monster pulls — with two riders faster than him?!" begins the post-stage run down of American ex-pro Tom Danielson on his X (Twitter) account. "While it was fun to watch, these next-level riders made the Stage 1 final look like a group ride!!!!! Tell me you're here for training without telling me you're here for training…"

Whilst for some, seeing Vingegaard as such an instigator was a surprise, for Danielson it was a blessing. "The bees swatted the hornets’ nest. Visma sent riders in big moves prior to the final climb, and UAE didn’t really even try to control it as a team," he notes. "It was a free-for-all with the big names going every which way in and out of moves. This gave the other riders hope and made the final of the race very difficult. Visma hit the nest hard in the end by setting a blistering pace into the final climb—but then swung off! This again created chaos, as everyone thought they had a shot.

"INEOS’ Laurance must have set his lifetime 30-second PR sprinting as hard as he could, only to look over and see Tulett there — followed by an insane blow from Paris-Nice winner Jorgenson! Then the final swat: a big whammy from Jonas Vingegaard with a huge hit right after the climb!" Danielson continues. "The bees had the top hornets buzzing furiously after him, with Tadej himself bridging, along with MDVP and Remco."

As mentioned, Danielson has also come up with a theory on just why Vingegaard was so fired up on stage 1, referencing the recently release trailer for the 3rd series of Tour de France: Unchained on Netflix in which Pogacar is seemingly seen shouting "F*** you man" to Vingegaard doing last years gravel stage. "Let’s talk about the Jonas attack. High on power, low on strategy," Danielson assesses. "The group ride strategy is really the only explanation — why else would you throw such a massive attack on a flat road directly in front of Tadej and MDVP? And then keep pulling when you see them on your wheel? But then later kinda not pull, but sort of keep pulling? Maybe the Netflix trailer was in his head?!"

"Despite the Jonas attack being pretty silly, the big takeaway was… wow, he is more explosive," concludes the American. "Tadej got a front-row seat, but based on the faces of Tadej and MDVP, it sure looks like Jonas has gotten his acceleration to a really good place. Also, if you watch the final sprint, Jonas was able to accelerate right away on Tadej’s wheel when he jumped — so well, in fact, that he was able to come out of the draft and come alongside him in the final."