Tadej Pogacar does not believe Jonas Vingegaard's struggles at Algarve are important: "I have no doubt he’ll be strong at the Tour"
Cycling
After one mountain stage and into the final day of the Volta ao Algarve, many can be surprised looking at the overall classification. Not just Primoz Roglic, but even Jonas Vingegaard himself sits behind a whole three riders from UAE Team Emirates - XRG. Whilst to many this would come as a bad sign for Team Visma | Lease a bike, Emirates' leader Tadej Pogacar refuses to take conclusions from it.
Pogacar is leading the UAE Tour where the lineup is rather modest but the course doesn't require many domestiques in the mountains. A lot of the teams' strong riders are currently training, racing the Vuelta a Andalucia or are having free reign in the Algarve. Jan Christen took advantage of a chaotic finale at the Alto da Fóia to take an impressive stage win at age 20; João Almeida followed him and has taken 16 seconds on the Dane which may be enough to secure the overall win this Sunday; and even António Morgado overtook the two Grand Tour winners in Fóia and on stage 4 has won even more time in the final sprint.
The time-trial should see a different outcome, but having three Emirates riders ahead of Vingegaard in such a way comes as a bit of a shock. In the UAE, the World Champion was asked about his biggest rival and he had an interesting response: "I’m sure Jonas will come to the Tour de France in his best form, as well as in the races leading up to it," Pogacar said in words to Marca.
The Slovenian is aware that Vingegaard is not at his best form, and that there is no point in taking conclusions from his modest performance in Fóia. "He uses this part of the season for preparation, but I have no doubt he’ll be strong at the Tour. I understand the questions about him and our great rivalry, but I have a lot of respect for Jonas. He’s a great champion, and we’ve had some incredible battles in the mountains."
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- Having to shoulder too much pressure from the Belgain public too much that he made a tactical mistake. That's what public pressure does to you. Poor Wout! Hopefully, lady luck befalls him soon.
KerisVroom03-04-2025 - If he's very lucky maybe he can podium a Tour one season, I certainly don't believe he can win it, evervappaxbipmv03-04-2025
- Yeah, as if fans would now have acquired a right to an MVPD every generation ;-)Jumpyjohn03-04-2025
- Yeah not this year anyway but worth keeping an eye on him (and some others) in future.Jumpyjohn03-04-2025
- poor kid, saddled with all that “next mvdp” crap. eeesh…OCexile03-04-2025
- I don't think so, maybe in a different GT, not in the Tour. Last year, to be 3rd, he would have to be better than Remco. And he wasn't, on any terrainvappaxbipmv03-04-2025
- Or sprinting, or against wind. I think by now they’ve optimised the tire tech and pressures to largely smooth out rider weight effects. BUT, I’m going to go through past podiums to see what weight distribution trends are to be spotted coz I’m curious now.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- I also wasn’t too impressed by the final lead out, they’ve got to practice that, Wout had far too long to ride alone but then again it seemed as if the lead-outs had themselves run out of steam too early which is what makes me believe none of them could have won, Powfull looked totally fresh and in the end it was just a case of him being stronger than the others, not much you can do against that, just like you can’t outdo MVDP in the end when he’s in shape.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- Exactly, a rider (or sprinter in athletics) can’t even tell themselves when it will happen until it does. Obviously if you have an idea that could happen, you should maybe envisage testing your theory with perhaps an small sharp attack well before race-end.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- Yes but 20 minutes as a domestique isn’t 20 minutes as a leader, and you know as well as anybody that Pog winning is in no way a guarantee. Granted, neither Pog nor Remco nor Jinas nor Primoz or some more winning starts to seem far-fetched but a podium would certainly be targetable if he doesn’t have to worry about Jonas.Mistermaumau03-04-2025