"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
CyclingSaturday, 31 May 2025 at 11:19
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."
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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."
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- So Remco "decimated the competition" with a 16 second win but Pog pulls 49 seconds out of him in 2 stages before and that's just chicken feed? Who writes this crap?
ScottG09-07-2025 - She should say whatever she wants to. Censorship is a tool of the insecure and weak.ScottG09-07-2025
- Your predictions are as accurate as mine - which means not at all, lolScottG09-07-2025
- do you come from the future, ScottG??? why did you see my bet like "aged bad" one day before? wow
maria2024202409-07-2025 - I predict that, of the early starters, the U23 World Champion Iván Romeo will be the best, and will hold the hotseat till the European Champion Edoardo Affini takes it, who will hold it till the World Champion Remco Evenepoel ousts him, to win the stage. This prediction is based on the rankings of the riders.
Llywelynglyndwr09-07-2025 - Jonas sat down first and the gap opened, i though it was over. THen Pogi stalled and and Jonas was able to accelerate to come to terms. Hopefully on the long climbs also he can matchabstractengineer09-07-2025
- My TOP five Tadej's victories: 1- stage 20, Tour de france 2020 2- stage 13, La Vuelta 2019 (he was a kid) 3- stage 6, Tour 2023 4- World Championship 2024 5- Flanders 2023 Thanks Tadej!maria2024202409-07-2025
- He only raised his arm in celebration and didn''t impede anyone in the process.Cyclingsbestfan09-07-2025
- What I find extremely bizarre is that just about Everyone (not directed at you) feels they can weigh in on the matter but most of the loudest feel she (one of those most implicated) should shut up.Mistermaumau09-07-2025
- João Almeida celebrated early (before Pogačar had actually won) but did not impede any riders in the processLlywelynglyndwr09-07-2025
The boring guy who "only rides the TdF" has just as many race days as Tadej over the last 4.5 years (230 vs 235) despite having far more serious injury. In Jonas's biggest year of racing he raced 68 days, a total Tadej has never reached. So while Tadej is clearly the superior all round rider, the criticism that Jonas only does the Tour is ridiculous.
This is easy math. Tadej races more single day races. Discrepancy solved.
Visma is so unlikeable. I feel like these comments were classless. I've heard nothing but admiration from UAE/Tadej as it relates to Jonas. It's a shame because I love Wout and Matteo but you just can't root for this lab project of a team. Also, I don't think Visma's team is nearly as strong as the '22 and '23 teams. I think what Wout did in the mountains in '22 was honestly more impressive than what Jonas was able to do. Wout was simply on another level and the collective team had Tadej isolated way too often. I don't expect that will happen again. Hell, UAE needs to bring Del Torro at this point who could neutralize attacks from Jorgenson. Visma would like to pretend that Tour is one extended time trail, going solo up long mountain climbs but it isn't. Jonas may have great numbers in a lab but without the best team, he is just a great climber, and that won't be enough to beat Tadej in the actual race.
Great climber (maybe the best) and great GC TT man. Jonas is an extraordinary 3 weeks tour GC boy, questionless. But FOR ME even if Tadej is second to this great specialist (jonas) he remains the best rider in absolute.
If Tadej has just one or two days of weakness like 22 or 23 Jonas could still win
The question is, why was he weak? The answer, he was following all the moves himself, quite a few times because he was isolated with no teammates. If he has teammates deeper into the stages, he doesn't need to cover attacks. If he doesn't have to cover attacks, he won't crack. This is all simple stuff, especially for folks who actually watch all the stages.
You do know you aren't allowed "teammates" on the TT, right? he lost 1.5 minutes there. Then the next day he didn't run out of teammates, he just ran out of gas. Yates and Majka headed up the road to salvage something for UAE
This was the year Pog missed his entire team altitude training for the Tour due to a complex wrist fracture! Sean Kelly correctly predicted Pog would 'run out of gas' in the last week due to his extreme lack of training, based on Kelly's own experience of this. Gianetti appointed Adam Yates as co-leader of UAE in that Tour because 'there are no miracles in cycling' - Pog had not been able to put in the training to win.
Jonas V is a one-trick pony and dull with it. Pogacar beats him with less preparation and spends the rest of the reason winning races Jonas doesn't dare enter. One of these two will be remembered for years to come.
What a sad comment, Looking to put down one of the most talented riders around for no other reason than him not being as good as the most talented. Grateful you don’t opine on the other 200 or so who never get anywhere near that level no matter how many races they try or not. Most athletes are one-trick ponies (in fact most of the top talents in ANY job!), it is in the nature of an ever more demanding specificity of competing and professionalism. Criticising one of the top 2 or 3 GT riders just for being less good than one of the others is actually POINTLESS, you are in fact encouraging him and all others to not even bother and end up with what would basically be, one man races. Without wanting to change the nature of GTs, an interesting question would be, who would win if they’d be 3 weeks of solo efforts with no drafting or assistance? Would Pog have the motivation to ride a TdF alone against the clock or does he need competition to bring out his best?
Silly comment. Jonas isn't "dull". What would actually be dull would be a GT with no real competition. Thank goodness Jonas is around to give Tadej a run for his money.
He spends all year every year preparing for one race. That's dull.
I agree. Jonas is TdF or bust, and that's boring especially when your chief competitor lines up for every race known to man. Tadej has gone on record saying he wants to win other races more than another Tour at this point of his career.
Jonas, along with Mathieu will be remembered as some of the very few that took on the great Pogaçar when some people argued it wasn’t possible.
Not reading anything negative in Mr. Plugge's comments. His job is to observe and support his rider and team and to market their team, and that's what his statements do, without anything disparaging against the competition. One can twist the comments to appear negative if one chooses, but why?
Everyone knows that Pog i s taking a risk by focusing on training exclusively for the Tour for only a few weeks instead of all year round, as Jonas does. But Plugge could easily mention this as simply a choice that Pog has made, which has been accepted up to now. Instead, he changes the narrative to insist that the real truth is Jonas is naturally better able to handle accumulated fatigue than Pog is. More psychological warfare than marketing.
It’s not necessarily a risk performance-wise, every riders improves best in his way of training, probably if Pog prepared Vingo’s way or Vingo prepared Pog’s way they’d both get beating by Remco ;-) Of course, if you were talking of crash or injury risk you’d be right, except that so far, Pog has gotten away relatively lightly in comparison.
Uae never said a single word against Jonas, only admiration. I couldn't say the same about Visma managers, I still remember the unpleasant "put Tadej on his knees". La classe non è acqua.
With the amazing riders Visma has, you would not think they would need to demean their rivals to boost their morale, but they often do it. It leaves a sour taste.
exactly!
If they are both on top form, Pogi will win
I'll bet on Pogi every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Especially if Sunday is a mountain top finish.
Richard Plugge has all the charm of a sea slug. I hope Pogi blasts Vingo back to the fish factory.
Of course Vingegaard was expected to show fatigue at the end, how could he not? He raced an incredible race, underprepared, most likely using some TUEs to get back in shape more quickly than usually possible (and I support that), but Pogacar was simply superior throughout. Other than stage 11, I don't think Vingegaard took time on Pogacar. The line that Vingegaard "was a big competitor toward the end" is countered by the fact that this was when Pogacar won most of his 6 stages, dominating the climbs, setting records. I'm just hoping that this year's concussion doesn't have the same effect. I'd love to see the both of them healthy and fully prepared - and then I have no clue at all who is superior over 3 weeks, which is what makes it fun to watch.
Totally agree. He did way better than could realistically be imagined, problem was, Pog also more or less. In the end the difference isn’t insurmountable and had there been no Pog, EVERYONE normal would have been full of admiration that he’d won it after his spring. Don’t know many riders to come back from so low to so high so fast.
If they are both in top form it should be an amazing battle.