Patrick Lefevere calls Visma "sore losers" after comments about Tadej Pogacar's greediness
CyclingTuesday, 23 July 2024 at 13:02
Tadej Pogacar's Tour de France can be characterized with number 5 as we enter the final time trial today. Fifth Tour de France participation, fifth podium, five minutes of lead in GC and five stage victories. The latter doesn't sit well with his opponents, who openly speak about greediness. But ironically it's quite often Visma | Lease a Bike who're the loudest critics, almost as if they'd forgot about last year's Vuelta a Espana...
"I didn't hear them say that last year. It's a bit of the language of the sore loser," Patrick Lefevere says in HLN, when confronted with quotes from his Visma | Lease a Bike counterpart Merijn Zeeman. The sports director openly asked himself whether Pogacar wasn't too greedy in this Tour.
On the other end of the wire, Thijs Zonneveld calls Pogacar 'a bit arrogant' in his column in the AD, about the fact that he actually wanted to give away stage 20. In the end, Zonneveld believes it was for everyone's good that Pogacar took the stage. Gifting a stage to Vingegeaard would've been "arrogant and humiliating" according to the journalist.
He further explains: "Giving your biggest competitor a stage as if you don't give a damn: ugly. As if you let your 5-year-old nephew win a game of Stratego because otherwise he'll start crying again. Giving a stage to someone with whom you've been fighting a life-and-death battle for every second for four years, that's a turd wrapped in gift paper. But criticizing a multiple winner because he wins a lot, that hits like a tuna on a drum kit."
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- Jonas is a great rider but only rides stage races so i would have to say he & Mads are about equal now. Stage racing in general is overvalued i think... (vs the power required to win one day races)Xrider5113-05-2025
- Jonas only does stage raXrider5113-05-2025
- First goats and now great danes, all we need now is a showdown at the tour of turkey, that could maybe slide into grease. Sorry, always happens when I get tired.Mistermaumau13-05-2025
- I think this kind of thing will become quite common in future in light of the way pros have had to up their game and risk-taking. Means more precarity but also a bigger pool.Mistermaumau13-05-2025
- Its difficult to compare the two, since both are fundamentally different as cyclists. Jonas is essentially a stage racer, whereas Mads excels in classics as well as in sprint stages at GTs. At this point of time, Jonas with his two Tour wins, beating Pogacar no less, has the better credentials. If Mads wins a few monuments and some Points Jerseys, the comparison may be closer.Cooldude13-05-2025
- I thought he did quite well in that team if not for the illnesses and strings of bad luck.
KerisVroom13-05-2025 - For his sacrifice, he was rewarded with nice haircut by his team lead. It's heartwarming to see a team lead who appreciates his domestique.KerisVroom13-05-2025
- Have you gone Mads? Jeez, this is the Giro, and apart from there being other races and riders not participating, there are over 150 riders with plots and subplots, including a thing called the GC for which I doubt VERY much he’ll come into contention. Are there no other stories or topics to propose currently? Does every article have to include MP? Comparisons to Wout, to Danes, how hell fare on every single stage. Soon Pogi will start feeling like he’ll have to do some publicity stunt to become relevant again. How about updating us on how his UCI ranking is evolving with all the frenzy?Mistermaumau13-05-2025
- I wonder if Mads' resurgence has something to do with Lidl-Trek electing to go with Jonathan Milan for Tour de France, thereby relegating Mads to the Giro and missing TDF for the first time in his career. The way he's performing now, he looks like he's out to prove he's still viable as top gun.FredMan13-05-2025
- Let's not forget that Pedersen won the Worlds in Yorkshire in true North of England conditions which are hell basically, when it's bad..
leedorney12-05-2025
As i see it, this year's TDF proved to be wonderful for the sport: following the shocking domination of Jonas & Visma last year, you had an unprecedented performance from Pogacar interwoven with an unbelievable recovery from Jonas for 2nd. What's more, Remco met all expectations in his debut, and the GC was confirmed precisely in the TT finale. Honestly, what more could you *want*?? Is there anyone not already thrilled for upcoming races and even thinking about the fun of next year's TDF? I doubt it...there should be no hand-wringing or second-guessing at the moment.
"Radekwilkanowski" said it perfectly. Think it's more than a touch of bad form to see Pogacar's competitors talking about greediness, all they need do is look at recent tours with other winners like last year's TDF and Vuelta to see how hypocritical such comments are. Talk about "gentlemanly racing" when this sport is as cutthroat as it gets🙄. It's conflating one thing — cooperation in the dynamics of pro cycling races amongst riders/teams, i.e. good cycling strategy — with another — seeking to win "only just enough" so as to "allow" others to win their share. When you think about it objectively, it's quite ridiculous and doesn't match up whatsoever with the sport (in modern times, at least...although Merckx winning 8 stages in a TDF *twice* suggests it wasn't about "tasteful winning" back then, either🤣).
How about Lance and Patrick doing a podcast together? Even if they were right we wouldn't to hear it from them.
When you are a competitor, the biggest sign of respect is giving it all to the finish line.