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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Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- It would likely be a very steep section of 4.1 km, not changing the average gradient considerably, with the climb remaining 10.1 km at 11.8%. It would reach 20% on the gravel. It would start 1.6 km in, and finish with 4.2 km left to climb (before the short final descent)
Rafionain-Glas02-11-2026 - Welcome to the off-season.
santiagobenites02-11-2026 - guillaume martin is wuite a surprise as a gc rider.Ketterechts02-11-2026
- Who cares what Bruyneel thinks. He and his best mate Lance, the biggest fraud in the history of sport, have no place commenting on anything but how to lie and cheat!whit2pet02-11-2026
- Eeesh!Lozza02-11-2026
- bravo! a rider likes jonas needs motivation and he needs to believe in being able to reach goals. he - like anybody else in the world - doesn't believe that he can win the tdf with pogi present. and what's it worth for when pogi is not there? second class victory only. he has checked all three grand tours, so what is left if not retire? the classics! go for it, jonas!Ketterechts02-11-2026
- i am sure that under the pretext of medical examination a lot worse has happened when they were under.abstractengineer02-11-2026
- dude, Lemond never even was in the same race as Armstrong. He throws all these aspersions on other American riders who might usurp his throne as the greatest ever American racer. He doesn't say a single thing about (foreign) dopers who he actually raced against. Biggest douchebag move ever. I used to revere that guy, now I despise him. His actions are so weird.fatsupermodel02-11-2026
- This is just stupid, You do what you are good at not what you are weak at. He has no results to speak of when he participated. Even Froome, Conatdor had very little. With Pogi there he wont win none of the classics. he is already 30+ with a few years left at the top. It takes years to get good at classics. Is that really worth the effort???abstractengineer02-11-2026
- Sure, little fella.awp02-11-2026
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🏆 Another one for Pogacar and @TeamEmiratesUAE 🏆 Une nouvelle victoire pour Pogacar et @TeamEmiratesUAE #TDF2024
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