“There’s no beef” – Wellens and Jorgenson downplay UAE-Visma tension

Tadej Pogacar is set to win the 2025 Tour de France for the fourth time, sealing his place in cycling history ahead of Jonas Vingegaard. The final stage today will bring an end to a brutal three-week contest defined by exhaustion, pressure, and increasing tension, particularly between Vingegaard’s Team Visma | Lease a Bike and Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates. Matteo Jorgenson, a key Visma rider, has battled illness throughout the race but still fought to be part of the breakaway on Saturday. As tempers frayed and energy reserves dwindled, he found himself repeatedly trading attacks with UAE’s Tim Wellens.

Despite the cat-and-mouse battle between the two, both riders dismissed the idea that personal conflict or team animosity drove their moves. “I don't know about the beef, I don't think it exists,” Jorgenson told Cycling Weekly.

“I'm sure it makes for good headlines, but Tim and I... we just wanted to be in the break clearly today and we showed our cards quite early. Already to get in the break we used up all our bullets and we didn't have a lot left because it has been a long Tour, and we've both done a lot for our teams. In the end, we found ourselves dropped together. There was no animosity between us."

Wellens echoed that sentiment, saying, “Today was super hard, the beginning there were maybe 40 riders with all the favourites, and then we went away again with three riders - myself and Jorgenson and the Arkéa rider [Ewen Costiou] I don't remember the name of - and we kill ourselves a little bit to ride in front of the breakaway and then when the final began, I felt we were pretty tired.”

Despite what the riders say, there have been many times over the course of the last three weeks where it appeared the two teams were irritating each other. From Pogacar chasing down all of Jorgenson’s attacks, to Wout van Aert having some stern words to say about the world champion on the rest day, there has undoubtedly been tension. But will that all be laid to rest now, as the race enters the final day and returns to Paris?

The constant counterattacks between Jorgenson and Wellens caught attention during yesterday’s stage, but both riders insisted it wasn’t tactical hostility. “[It was] two defeated men talking, we didn't have much air to speak in the race so I just wanted to tell him that I wasn't playing games, and he also wasn't. We were just trying our best,” Jorgenson explained.

“From my side there's no beef,” he added. “We were racing against each other, but I don't see any beef.”

Both admitted their strength wasn’t enough to carry them to the finish. “Wellens and I spent our bullets pretty early, and we never recovered,” Jorgenson said. “I could tell the whole day that I didn't have the legs to win, and I could tell that Kaden [Groves] was super strong. I tried to get ahead early, I knew quite quickly that the legs were not going to come around. I think the strongest guys made it up there.”

Wellens agreed they were spent before the real finale began. “The problem was both me and Jorgenson were a little bit à bloc, we had the same level today but it was difficult. When Jorgenson attacked he put me totally on the limit, even if he went on the limit himself, that's his business, but I asked him to hold on and we could work together for the logs, but I don't think we had the legs to win. When Groves went for it, with a minute's advantage, that was it.”