Team Visma CEO Richard Plugge on Tadej Pogacar: "We will only see in the Tour de France what the real level is"
Cycling
Tadej Pogacar is currently dominating the Giro d'Italia. The victory was expected and, without major crashes or illnesses, the Slovenian has - so far - won five stages - and ridden through Italy without a real challenger for the pink jersey. However, for Team Visma | Lease a Bike CEO Richard Plugge, this means that it is hard to analyze Pogacar's current level.
Pogacar currently is joined in the podium by Daniel Martínez and Geraint Thomas, but arguably none of them have been at a similar level. Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel are expected to be his biggest rivals at the Tour de France, but the UAE Team Emirates rider has not competed with neither of them this year in the mountains. And Plugge believes that only at the Tour will the team understand if his level has increased or not.
“I think what is missing here is an Evenepoel, Roglic or Vingegaard to compete with," Plugge said in words to Cyclingnews. "That is unfortunately the case. We will only see in the Tour what the real level is.” After the Giro, which Pogacar should seal this Sunday in Rome, he will rest for a week, before taking on an altitude camp for three weeks ahead of the Tour. He should arrive in good form, as last year even with limited preparation he entered the race firing all cylinders.
This time around it is Jonas Vingegaard having a limited and non-ideal preparation, but Plugge reassures that there is good evolution. “Jonas is doing well, and his progress is going very well. But we have to make our decision at a later time whether he is really capable of being at the start of the Tour at one hundred percent," he says. "We have to wait and see how the evolution continues in the coming weeks, but we have good hope."
"On the other hand, we also want to give him and ourselves time to make a good decision. We are not putting a deadline on that.” Vingegaard is unlikely to race before the Tour de France, but as is the case with Pogacar, take on a long altitude camp in June instead of racing as he is still trying to recover his base form after weeks off the bike.
However, Vingegaard is currently riding in sunny Mallorca already, with hopes of still reaching his best level during the Tour. There is just over month left to go in this mission. “He is the outgoing winner there. He has now won the Tour twice in a row, but when he starts, he has to be at 100 percent. The Tour is not a race where you can go to and hope for the best. Hope is never a good start, so we have to be sure of his level.”
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A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
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Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
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- More to the point, it isn't his remaining goal.Renz08-11-2026
- lol yeahmij08-11-2026
- I know, their headlines can be so misleading. Pidcock had a great season with 5 wins. and some solid 2nds. no reason to take away from that with a fake headline.mij08-11-2026
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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Vingegaard entrenando en Mallorca. Hay Tour #ciclismo2005
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