“Tadej Pogacar is afraid of two riders: Vingegaard and Van Aert” - Visma’s anti-Pogacar tactics fuel genuine ‘hate’ from UAE, claims Thijs Zonneveld

If Tadej Pogacar’s 2026 season has made him look close to untouchable, Thijs Zonneveld believes there is still one team capable of making him uncomfortable. Not because they try to match his style, but because Team Visma | Lease a Bike have built an entire racing identity around refusing to race on his terms.

That, according to Zonneveld, is what separates Visma from the rest of the peloton. Speaking on the joint In de Waaier and De Rode Lantaarn podcast, the Dutch analyst argued that the rivalry between Pogacar and Visma has become a full-blown tactical war.

“They are the only team that dares to play the game. Years ago, they already had this discussion. They looked at the numbers and saw back then that Pogacar was better,” said Zonneveld. “And that he would become even better if he started doing the same things in terms of equipment and nutrition. They were the first and only team to structurally choose to race anti-Pogacar.”

That anti-Pogacar approach has not just been theoretical. Jonas Vingegaard used Visma’s controlled, selective and often stubbornly disciplined style to beat Pogacar at the Tour de France in both 2022 and 2023. This spring, Wout van Aert then gave Visma another major victory over Pogacar, beating him in a two-up sprint at Paris-Roubaix after the Slovenian had already won Strade Bianche, Milano-Sanremo and the Tour of Flanders.

For Zonneveld, that is part of a far deeper rivalry than most fans see. “But the war between Visma and UAE is enormous. That clashes on every front. We still don’t realise how much is going on between those teams behind the scenes. For UAE, Visma are the only team they really hate.”

The irony, in Zonneveld’s view, is that Vingegaard is often criticised for doing exactly what many say is needed against Pogacar. “Vingegaard is an example of that, because many cycling fans see him as boring. Or as someone who doesn’t have the guts, because he doesn’t follow moves. The reason he does that is because otherwise he gets dropped,” he explained.

That line matters because it cuts directly into the way Vingegaard is often judged against Pogacar. Pogacar has made 2026 his latest exhibition of range, power and aggression, winning across radically different terrain and coming within one sprint of adding Paris-Roubaix to his Monument collection. Vingegaard’s season has been different, with overall victories at Paris-Nice and the Volta a Catalunya, plus two stage wins in each, reinforcing his own authority in week-long stage racing.

Those are not identical routes to July, but they are both brutally effective. Pogacar has been proving he can win almost anywhere. Vingegaard has been proving, again, that he remains built for general classification control. “We want everyone to play that tactical game, and he is actually the person who plays the game we want to see,” Zonneveld said of Vingegaard. “He gets under Pogacar’s skin. I think Pogacar is afraid of two riders: Vingegaard and Van Aert.”

That is where Zonneveld draws the sharpest contrast with the rest of the peloton. His criticism is not simply that Pogacar is better than everyone else, but that too many rivals end up racing in ways that suit him.

In that context, he argued that riders including Remco Evenepoel, Mathieu van der Poel and Paul Seixas can all be pulled into helping Pogacar’s race rather than breaking it apart. “Evenepoel in particular has the personality for it,” said Zonneveld.

That does not make Visma unbeatable, and Pogacar’s 2026 form hardly suggests vulnerability. But it does make their rivalry different. While others are often drawn into Pogacar’s rhythm, Visma have spent years trying to deny him that rhythm altogether.

With Vingegaard now targeting the Giro d’Italia before another Tour de France clash, and Pogacar looking stronger than ever after his spring campaign, the next chapter of the rivalry is not just about which rider has the better legs. It is about whether Visma’s anti-Pogacar blueprint can still disrupt the most dominant rider in the sport.