"Tadej Pogacar is a bit like the Lionel Messi of cycling and Jonas Vingegaard is the Cristiano Ronaldo" - Experts discuss how cycling's biggest rivalry transcends the sport
Cycling
There are arguably no bigger stars in cycling today, than Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. The duo have gone head to head repeatedly at the Tour de France in recent years, sharing five Maillot Jaune wins between them (3 to Pogacar, 2 to Vingegaard). To look for a comparative rivalry in the sporting landscape, we may have to look at football and the Lionel Messi - Cristiano Ronaldo battle that has defined a generation.
With UK coverage of cycling changing from Eurosport to TNT Sports, presenter Orla Chennaoui welcomed in the new era of the sport by using the Messi - Ronaldo comparison. "I mean for anyone who’s new to cycling and who we’re welcoming to the family for this season, Pogacar is a bit like, I guess, the Messi of cycling and Jonas is the Ronaldo," said Chennaoui on The Ultimate Cycling Show. "Is that fair to say that head-to-head? He [Pogacar] is a one-man team."
Joining Chennaoui on the opening episode of the new TNT show, was former British national champion Adam Blythe. "He literally is though [a one man team], he could be. He’s got more points than the second-place team on his own in the UCI rankings, just by his wins alone. So technically he is a one-man team with a bit of help from some very good riders. That’s how good he is," Blythe lauds of Pogacar. "He’s just a talent, not just in Grand Tours, he can do everything and that’s what excites me. He’s doing Flanders again this year. We’ve seen him maybe teasing us with a little bit of Roubaix."
And although Blythe also agrees with the comparisons to Messi, who is widely viewed as the most naturally gifted footballer ever, whilst Ronaldo is seen as having worked himself up to potential G.O.A.T status through sheer hard work and determination to keep improving, the 35-year-old caveats the point. "What Tadej does on a bike, you can’t really compare it. It’s like putting Messi in defence. He’d still be good, but he’s not a defender," he points out. "Whereas that guy [Pogacar], he can do literally everything."
Can Vingegaard stop Pogacar at the Tour de France later this summer though? "Well of course [Vingegaard can beat Pogacar], he’s like anyone. Eventually everyone’s a human being," adds former INEOS Grenadiers sports director Steve Cummings. "But there’s no getting away from it, he was so dominant last year, Pogacar, that he seems like he’s on another level to anyone else. Pogacar's level went up [last season] and then obviously some of the other riders had some crashes and injuries and sickness that they didn’t reach their maximum. But what Pogacar did, the races he won and how he was winning from the start of the season to the end of the season, it’s just phenomenal really."
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— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) February 28, 2025
That’s a terrible analogy, especially the Vin/CR part. It would have been more interesting to add a few and compare with tennis.
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- Yes, I get that but it wasn’t exactly a good comparison if you ask me, circumstances and competition were very different. Also crashing whilst staying up front is pretty different from crashing and being left behind.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- Pidcock was riding at a hard enough pace until the sector where Pogacar made up something like 20 seconds in something like... 20 seconds. Pidcock was quite a bit ahead, and suddenly he wasn't. At that point, clearly he would get caught, so might as well get caught sooner and work together. That's just good cycling. (I think the point is, plenty of people win even after they've come down in a crash - Van der Poel crashed at the worlds and won, anyway, for example).RidesHills08-04-2025
- Great sprint, Ineos set him up at exactly the right time, they protected the corners through the turns, and he did the job he was supposed to do. Nice to see him win again.RidesHills08-04-2025
- When Vingo, Rogla, and Wout were all at the height of their powers, a sight to behold.mobk08-04-2025
- To quote the article: riders from Arkéa - B&B Hotels and a few others seized the moment to launch an attack, increasing the pace as Pogacar was briefly off the bike. Not coolmij08-04-2025
- I don’t think it was a matter of easing up. I think it was a matter of attacking. And MVDP said his team would respect similar situations. Perhaps not on the penultimate climb, but I believe they would. To accelerate is a jerk move.mij08-04-2025
- His basic attitude always has been (and we know age often reinforces inherent values), if I’m going down I’m going to try taking you with me.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- I know it’s tradition and nice but to make the discussion more interesting, if an Arkea rider had driven up to tell Alpecin or UAE to ease off for Mozzato or Vauquelin having a P, would they have been as gentlemanly?Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- That’s probably about right although if they’d talked it over it would have been in all their interests to work together to chase Pog down because those 4 arriving at the finish in that scenario would have left all 4 with a chance of victory.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- Exactly, that easily makes for a minute at the front. You don’t see Pog cracking often either (less often than MVDP even) but when he does it’s lights out and over too. This is completely normal and to be expected, at the level of competitiveness all these guys are they only crack once they’ve pushed beyond their manageable limit and there’s no coming back from that. When your rival forces you into the red to keep or catch up, it’s over, in that respect, well done to WVA who seems to be world champion in staying just outside the red for as long as he can.Mistermaumau08-04-2025