"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

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."