"Pogacar's biggest enemy is called Pogacar" - Johan Bruyneel believes Tour de France winning battle depends mostly on the defending champion

Cycling
Thursday, 19 June 2025 at 13:13
tadejpogacar jonasvingegaard 2
Johan Bruyneel and George Hincapie discussed on 'The Move' podcast what happened in the past Criterium du Dauphiné and how it will relate to the upcoming Tour de France; and how the key to the Tour de France decision is in Tadej Pogacar's ability to remain consistent.
The French race looked more tight in the first few days with the attacks of Jonas Vingegaard and the Slovenian's modest time-trial, however once the race entered the mountains the damage was immediate and irreversible.
"After the time trial I thought: wow, do we have a real race ahead of us? Who knows what happened to Pogacar, but he wasn't good compared to the other favorites. That made it exciting, but to see him in the mountains leaving Vingegaard and Remco behind like that...".
"With these guys, the teams are not so important. Visma can be stronger. With their numbers they can maybe isolate Tadej. But the point is that then Tadej will attack. And there they are left with two. There's no one else." Directly, Pogacar would on paper be superior and be able to nullify Visma's numerical advantage.
George Hincapie agreed, commenting that Visma's tactic of stiffening the race suits Pogacar: "Those tactics don't work, that stiffening the race to wear out his legs. That only works to his advantage. You have to ride as if second or third place doesn't matter. You have to go all out for the win, or nothing".
For the Belgian pundit, he believes Visma does have the possibility to be able to do this however: "The only one they can maybe try that with is Matteo Jorgenson. He's a danger, but UAE will always have João Almeida as a backup, and Adam Yates, who is more or less at the same level."
But with a route that features very similar mountain stages, it will be hard to surprise. "They can only take advantage if there is no summit finish, or if there is a lot of terrain between the mountains. If the finish is on a peak, the team doesn't matter anymore. If Pogacar accelerates, only Jonas can follow him. So the question is: how long can he follow him? For everyone's benefit, I hope the gap will be smaller in the Tour."
And he ended by making it clear that for him the only favorite to win the Tour is Pogacar: "Tadej Pogacar's biggest enemy is Tadej Pogacar. If he rides smart, and attacks when he has to... After what I saw in the Dauphiné, I don't know how close they can really be to him".
claps 29visitors 12
7 Comments
mobk 19 June 2025 at 19:12+ 1974

Yés

User Avatar
maria20242024 20 June 2025 at 01:46+ 1311

ahahahah I love irony.

Just in

Popular news

Latest comments