"Tadej Pogacar has his style, I have mine. But it does bother me sometimes when we are portrayed as 'calculated'" - Jonas Vingegaard honest on comparisons to world champion
CyclingTuesday, 11 March 2025 at 10:55
The rivalry between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard has defined a generation in the sport of cycling. With the pair having distinctly different styles, both on the bike and off, comparisons between the two are often guaranteed to cause debate amongst fans. In a recent interview, Vingegaard himself addressed the differences between himself and the current world champion.
In conversation with with José De Cauwer for Het Nieuwsblad, Vingegaard is honest about his feelings towards the comparisons with Pogacar. "Tadej has his style, I have mine. But it does bother me sometimes when we are portrayed as 'calculated'," the Dane explains, noting the slightly different view fans have of the Team Visma | Lease a Bike train and the UAE Team Emirates - XRG block. "I understand that it looks like that in the Tour de France and we always say ourselves 'we have a plan'. But sometimes we really do things on intuition."
Vingegaard even has a notable example on hand to call back to, from the 2023 Tour de France. "In the stage to Marie Blanc, it was said in advance that we would only follow and certainly not attack," the two-time Maillot Jaune winner remembers fondly. "But in the end we felt that Pogacar was at his limit and we changed everything."
Another iconic day in recent Grand Tour memory that saw Vingegaard get the better of Pogacar, came with his famous individual time trial win at the 2023 Tour de France on stage 16. A performance that all but officially confirmed the Dane's second successive Maillot Jaune win. "I have never had a better feeling on the bike," recalls Vingegaard. "That day everything went perfectly. Every bend in the descent, every pedal stroke uphill. I thought my power meter was broken."
As De Cauwer notes, this can also be viewed as a day when Vingegaard and Team Visma | Lease a Bike weren't the cold and calculated operators some might view them as. "To put it this way: if your legs hurt and you don't reach your watts, then you can indeed block. But it is also a misconception that in a time trial we write down numbers in advance that we will or will not reach," the experienced Belgian cycling expert assesses. "People sometimes think that we are robots, but a time trial always involves 'feeling'."
An amazing, emotional comeback 🏆😪
— Velon CC (@VelonCC) November 24, 2024
Jonas Vingegaard out-sprinted Tadej Pogačar to win Stage 11 of the Tour de France, 98 days after suffering collarbone and rib fractures and a collapsed lung in a crash at Itzulia Basque Country. pic.twitter.com/4n7SgdDgWt
claps 9visitors 9
Just in
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
May 12, 11:09
0
Popular news
Latest comments
- This is pretty much a low bar for a star rider. Domestiques from other teams got higher GC rankings than him. Either he has to really train for those 1 hour climb or give up on GC hope altogether. Not a fan of Pidcock, but I think he's definitely capable of doing better if he really trained for long climbs, which his coach said he didn't. Best of luck to him.
KerisVroom05-06-2025 - Nuh, realistically, Jonas is the only main rival unless some accidents befall Tadej.KerisVroom05-06-2025
- I just simply don't believe team orders were at fault. In what world would a pink jersey leader knowingly throw away their lead just to follow team orders? Del Toro surely knew the gap to Yates was growing and he was going to lose his lead. So either Del Toro didn't have the legs or he was stupid and listened to alleged team orders to only follow Carapaz. It simply does not make sense - I mean even if the team orders were true, Del Toro shouldn't take it literally e.g. if Carapaz crashed and all the other top ten riders went 3mins up the road, would Del Toro really be stupid enough to "follow team orders" and stick with Carapaz? This is an exaggerated example, but it is exactly what Del Toro did with Yates. Del Toro only has himself to blame - if someone is threatening your lead, you chase, it shouldn't take team orders to tell you to do that!Pogboom05-06-2025
- Chris Froome...who cares yet he gets top billing here!frieders305-06-2025
- "The idea was we’d race to win every day – or every day that suited me – and do the best GC I could." It was supposed to be "either or", not "and". The dreams of GC glory are confounded by the lack of recovery. He should have stuck to stage wins.abstractengineer04-06-2025
- There are three GT winners in that group and all different onesabstractengineer04-06-2025
- Nobody, it aint the TDFabstractengineer04-06-2025
- RIP Mustafa Ayyorkun.
santiagobenites04-06-2025 - From what I can gather, seems the DS had drilled into Del Toro before the race and again at the start of the long climb that he must mark Carapaz. Imperfect info made it difficult for the DS to directly tell Del Toro to close on Yates before the end of the climb, so it was mostly left to Del Toro's unexperienced judgement, who may have been near his limit anyways. In the end, probably either one could have lead the chase, but then would have come in third, while helping the other to first. Great execution of a great plan by Visma in Wout getting on top of the climb in advance and Yates being able to get that separation that caused the stalemate behind him. Also, in hindsight, big mistake by both EF and UAE in letting the break and Wout get so far out.Meeper04-06-2025
- Don't think Carapaz and Del Toro could have reeled him back in once Yates got to Wout; too big of an engine. The lead would have been stretched long enough to prevent them from closing the gap at the end.Meeper04-06-2025
I haven't been watching cycling for very long but I feel like we are in a golden age with Pogacar, Vingegaard, Roglic, Evenepoel, Pidcock, van der Poel, van Aert (I'm definitely forgetting a lot of other riders)... My point is, we should be celebrating their differences because that is what makes it a golden age for me.
It's not wrong if Jonas sticks to a plan and be as calculated as he can most of the time. While, it may seem boring, that's how they got an impulsive rider like Tadej worn out on stage 11 of TdF 2022. Of course, that also means that he didn't know how to read the room and adapt. One clear example is stage 6 of TdF 2023 where he was, in fact, riding at the front for Tadej after failing to drop him before Tadej attacked and dropped him.
The simple fact that we don’t see Jonas racing any of the classics tells the difference between the two.
Yes, but Pogacar is considered an outlier among modern GT riders. Modern GT riders mostly focus on stage races.
That's true, however there are hilly/mountainous one day races that Jonas doesn't compete in. Ardenes, autumn Italian races
Yes, you're right. Il Lombardia actually is a monument for climbers. On paper, it should suit Jonas.
As has been said many times, Jonas is a diesel, never going to focus on one day races, Tadej is a roadie, never going to do MTB or CX.
He can't help himself.
It’s what he himself has said, just like many announced retirement and come back out so basically you accept their word being worthless. Anyway, to be accurate, it is accurate until he proves us wrong, then we can start arguing what constitutes doing MTB or CX, going for a Sunday ride with mates off season is not the same as taking part professionally but we’ll cross that bridge IF it ever happens. Besides, an opinion cannot be inaccurate it can only be wrong. And thank you for repeating what Maria reminded everyone of.
replying to KerisVroom re Vingegaard and Il Lombardia - it's the last Monument he raced, back in 2022. He was more or less in it until the very ending stages, but the last few hills when Mas and Pogacar took off and Landa got on and fell off a few times, he drifted off the back of the group and ended up 16th. In '21 he was 14th.
For what it's worth, double Tour de France winner Pogacar raced cyclocross in Ljubljana in December '21. Not sure he's raced since, but it wasn't just as a junior. (He won the race, surprise.)
I see, I stand corrected. I thought Jonas never raced there, but I think it probably didn't register to me because he wasn't as famous back then.
Jonas isn't robotic enough for me. Keris Vroom is still the best on this matter. He always looks at his computer and ride to the power.
Sometimes I really think that things get lost in translation. Every little detail of a riders season, preparation, and racing tactics is carefully calculated to provide optimum performance. Of course, how one feels on the bike is something that needs to be added to the overall equation as well.
It doesn’t help that the translation into English isn’t done by native speakers but then few native English speakers know other languages well enough to translate ;-)
what? The exception does not invalidate the rule: you, in the vast majority of situations, are calculated and guided in detail by your sporting director, little or no-initiative of your own. It is not offensive at all, it is simply your style.
I’m guessing it is every cyclists style. as it every successful persons style. success in life is not left to random chance
yes, the prior preparation must be rational and precise, but the races have so many dynamic variables, they are chaotic. Jonas and Tadej have different styles in responding to the situations. Tadej is flexible and very reactive on his own, more instinctive . Jonas' style is passive, static, he sticks to the previous plan and waits for instructions before modifying it, more calculated.
Success in who’s eyes or according to what criteria?
We are trully blessed to have two such high class acts competing with each other at this time in our sport.
We have more than 2.