"The difference specially between Tadej and Jonas is his ability to maintain a high cadence for a long time" - Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin debate Pogacar's dominance

Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard have had epic battles in the past but it seems like in 2024 the UAE Team Emirates rider took a step that none of his rivals could match. After a pristine Tour de France, the Slovenian has set himself above all competition and in 2025 his rivals will need to evolve further if they want to dream of a Tour de France win.

"I think he thinks he can beat him. He beat him twice in a row, he will train his ass off for sure," Johan Bruyneel said of Vingegaard in 'The Move' podcast alongside Spencer Martin. "One of the comments I've seen in the last week was I said 'I couldn't understand why Jonas wasn't racing anymore this year', maybe that's what he's doing, he's focusing completely on changing his training, getting more power with power training. He knows he needs to step up if he wants to be a contender to Tadej".

This year it was a full focus on the Tour de France and although he faced big obstacles in the form of his injuries at Itulia Basque Country, the Dane was still able to show his best climbing numbers at the Grand Boucle, win a stage and finish second in the overall classification. But taking into consideration that Pogacar had come from the Giro d'Italia, it can be said that in terms of preparation there wasn't much of an advantage.

The previous four Tours have seen the duo in first and second in the final GC. Next year this may happen again, and both have two wins: "I'm pretty use the mind of these guys, I think Jonas is convinced he can still beat him. And why not think that? It was a miracle that he was at the start of the Tour de France, he came to the start after that really bad crash and with minimal preparation and until a certain moment he was very close, even managed to beat him. He was one of the only riders this year who was able to beat Tadej Pogacar in a race that Pogacar wanted to win (he refers to stage 11 in Le Lioran, ed.). He must think 'I basically need to work harder, stay healthy, not crash, and I can still beat him'. I'm sure he hasn't given up".

The two then discussed what has seen Pogacar take the leap this year and what separates him from the rest. "I don't know what exactly sets him apart, as we said he's a great talent since a young age. What I see is the biggest the difference specially between Tadej and Jonas is his ability to maintain a high cadence for a long time," Bruyneel argues.

"The cadence is unbelievable... Every single race he's won he was between 92 and 97RPM over the whole race, independently of how long it was. Jonas has a good cadence but not the same cadence. High cadence works for some and not for others, it's not something I pinpoint as the reason but if you're able to have a high cadence you are kind of protecting yourself from blowing up... You know that even if you're not on a great day, you're still going to have a good day."

Certainly it is only one difference out of many, but it was possible to see the Slovenian adopt a more seated-effort approach to climbs, this was very visible at the Giro d'Italia but a clear example was also his attack to victory at the Giro dell'Emilia.

The exact answer is still to be discovered. Bruyneel concludes: "Remco had a great cadence also, more or less the same as Tadej. There's something with Pogacar's pedaling style that I haven't figured out yet, it looks amazing it's so smooth it looks easy, we've been talking a bout the shorter cranks, nothing prevents Jonas or Remco or Primoz to try..."