"Pogacar is better at the Tour of Flanders, but this is about a three-week race. Jonas is better at that" - Visma have full faith in Vingegaard ahead of 2025 Tour de France

Once again, the Tour de France looks set to hold a showpiece battle between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard in 2025. Both riders have taken a very different route to the Maillot Jaune fight this year, but despite Pogacar's brilliance in the Spring, Team Visma | Lease a Bike are retaining their faith in Vingegaard.

"You could perhaps say that Pogacar is better on Tour of Flanders-like courses, but this is about a three-week race. And in our view, Jonas is better at that," Team Visma | Lease a Bike's team boss Richard Plugge insists with defiance in conversation with Wielerflits, explaining how Vingegaard is better suited than Pogacar "to be able to handle that accumulation of fatigue, etc."

The fact remains though, that Pogacar will start the 2025 Tour de France as the pre-race favourite. The Slovenian has won each of the last two Grand Tours he's started, winning 12 stages en route, with numerous Monument victories and even a Rainbow Jersey victory also being secured over the last couple of seasons for the Slovenian. Even with this though, Plugge has a response, pointing towards mitigating circumstances at the 2024 Tour de France.

"Due to circumstances, Jonas was simply less in the final week last year," Plugge recalls, noting the aftereffects of a nasty crash at the Itzulia Basque Country that had interrupted Vingegaard's preparation for the Tour last year.

"I do think that UAE Team Emirates-XRG has made progress after the time trial to Combloux in the 2023 Tour. But so have we. And we are mainly looking at ourselves and how we can improve our performance. Compared to last year, we have taken another big step in that regard," Plugge concludes. "Jonas has gained minutes on Pogacar for two years in a row. Last year, after a very flawed start and a pretty bad finish, physically, Jonas was also a big competitor towards the end. Jonas has also made progress again. I have no reason not to believe that we can go for yellow again."