"The best rider of the moment can be beaten" - Plugge confident that Visma can take it up to Pogacar once again at the Tour de France
Cycling
Team Visma | Lease a Bike have a firm hold of the pink jersey at the Giro d'Italia currently and there are not many signs that Jonas Vingegaard will be handing it over. In the bigger picture, team CEO Richard Plugge is eagerly anticipating the Tour de France in which he believes the team can put Tadej Pogacar on the ropes.
Vingegaard and Wout Van Aert are amongst the very few riders who have directly managed to beat Pogacar since his improvement in 2024, which has made the World Champion virtually unbeatable in the races that he puts his full focus on. The next one will be the Tour de France.
“In the upcoming Tour de France, Wout joins that other epitome of resilience: Jonas Vingegaard. Over the past two years, Jonas and the team had a flawed run-up to the Tour," Plugge said on the Wielerflits magazine. In 2026, as it stands, it seems as if the team will be able to arrive at the Tour with its leaders not having suffered setbacks throughout the spring that will hamper them
"With that dramatic crash in the Basque Country in 2024, after which Jonas spent weeks in the hospital before being able to train reasonably well, we even extended his training camp slightly to ensure he still had enough training kilometers in his legs".
"After which half of the Tour squad subsequently dropped out sick or injured, and we even had to ask Bart Lemmen to replace Sepp Kuss on the Sunday before the Tour.”
Good ending to 2025 provides base for 2026 Tour de France
In 2025, Vingegaard then crashed at Paris-Nice, suffering a concussion that kept him away from training for two weeks and ended his spring prematurely. He returned to racing at a high level at the Tour Auvergne - Rhône Alpes, but the gap to Pogacar was all-round large and couldn't be closed.
“In 2025, the long aftermath of the crash in Paris-Nice had major consequences for Jonas’s form and the course of the Tour. With superman Tadej Pogacar and UAE Emirates-XRG as phenomenal opponents, neither the preparation nor the execution can be lacking. Jonas recovered after the Tour, won the Vuelta a España, and was able to build a solid foundation again last winter for the first time in two years with the help of trainer Mathieu Heijboer.”
Changing coaches throughout the winter can help boost the Dane's level this year, with his former trainer Tim Heemskerk leaving towards Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe where he will be preparing Remco Evenepoel instead.
Vingegaard had a strong second half of 2025 and has now been clear from any major injury or illness for over a year, allowing him to continuously build momentum. He won Paris-Nice and the Volta a Catalunya convincingly during the spring; and so far has won all three summit finishes at the Corsa Rosa which he is expected to be winning in a week's time.
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Tadej Pogacar can be beaten
That is the perfect run-up for Vingegaard: A victory that would remove the weight from his shoulders; and the trust that he can increase his level even further ahead of July, as the team suggested on multiple instances. His teammates are currently in Sierra Nevada, training at altitude as part of the key preparation block for the Tour.
"Just like the rest of the designated team. Edoardo Affini, Bruno Armirail, Victor Campenaerts, Matteo Jorgenson, and Sepp Kuss, under the leadership of The Architect Grischa Niermann, form a top-notch support structure for our Danish leader".
Seven of the Tour's riders are clearly outlined whilst the eighth, in the absence of the once again injured Christophe Laporte, should be British climber Ben Tulett who impressed at last years' Vuelta in support of Vingegaard.
"Both Jonas and Wout have demonstrated in previous editions that the best rider of the moment can be beaten. By joining forces and overcoming deep valleys, they are back at the top of their game. Hopefully, that collective resilience will coalesce into kryptonite in the upcoming Tour de France, as one of the people from the management of UAE Emirates-XRG put it.
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
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.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
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)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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- Thats only cause he rides for UAE. In any other team he would be captain in many races atleast. UAE is just to crazymiguel06-11-2026
- He seems to be the rare athlete whose passion and curiosity about life beyond his sport equals his extraordinary achievements in it. It would be great for him to risk less of that life. He seems very grateful and joyful for what he has already attained.
MarkFour06-11-2026 - As much as I admire and even revere Wout, the less I know about his backside the better.MidnightRider06-11-2026
- Ok, Walt 🤣... Vingegaard would be lucky to get on the poduim. He would not beat Seixas or Del Toro, let alone TP. Then there are the Americans...BD06-11-2026
- So, for starters. Cycling is a saturated, static/dying sport in traditional lands, it will not have resurgences like eg running occasionally does because of several obstacular (yes, I know that’s not a word but don’t make me point out the obvious at your expense) factors. Obviously, like almost everything involving money, there is a desire/need/advantage to growth and that can only come from (developing or just testing) new markets. For me, the WC is the obvious and best choice for several reasons, it comes at the end of the season so is less critical season risk wise, it is not a “pro” team race but nation based which makes integration of uncommon participation more natural. It is a vehicle for redistribution (one of a very limited number of available mechanisms to develop new markers fairly) that the fixed calendar doesn’t allow and it helps make budgets fairer over the long run (moving the whole circus to everywhere evens out everyone’s budget as opposed to having everyone always come to the same location.Jumpyjohn06-11-2026
- Sad that a more refreshing article like this, which could generate discussion in a number of directions, gets completely ignored for the importance of debating the level of superiority of one rider into every single last detail, including a majority of totally hypothetical ones. People complain there is no news in the off season and it’s boring but don’t realise how boring it is to review the same old discussion over and over again, several times a day. In fact, you’d almost think this was a rider fan website. Instead of complaining about the FREE (as long as you pay attention to data use if not unlimited coz this site consumes almost as much for loading Youtube) content, the presence of cv of authors (for the missed obvious reason that it makes it easier to insert extra advertising without changing formats), the lack of quality/checking and depth of articles, why not also think about the content, quality and variety of posts that everyone can contribute to? The platform becomes irrelevant when discussion is interesting.Jumpyjohn06-11-2026
- UAE Team Emirates and Pogačar will officially unveil their objectives at the team’s media day, which will take place on December 18 in Benidorm, Spain. New information from the UAE Team: Exceptional recovery remains the cornerstone of success for the Slovenian cannibal-Pogi, whose sporting manager, Matxin, believes he will be even better in 2027 than he has been over the past three seasons.PogiSloFans06-11-2026
- Yeh, but he didn't and RE beat Pog & Del T 👍
leedorney06-11-2026 - Just my opinionleedorney06-11-2026
- Great win.However will the world champions jersey be simply a domestic for the season which will some what tarnish the jersey. I hope he is given free rein to try and win some races.paultryan200206-11-2026
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