The
Tour de France 2025 is on everyone's lips, and it hasn't even started. But that's normal, given the incredible turnout that awaits the Grande Boucle. With
Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard,
Remco Evenepoel, Primoz Roglic, Enric Mas, Carlos Rodriguez and many more, the fight for the yellow jersey is going to be beautiful.
However, almost everyone agrees that the final winner will come from the Big Three of Pogacar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel. But after what happened in the
Criterium du Dauphiné, the circle has closed even more, and very few dare to bet in favor of the Belgian who was a few steps behind his competitors (except his fine discipline - the time trial).
One of those who have already mostly written off the Belgian is
Simone Velasco. In an interview with
Bici.Pro, the XDS Astana Team rider gave an assessment of the Dauphiné, where he suffered more than expected. At one particular point, he was asked about the favorites, and he "forgot" about Evenepoel.
Tadej Pogacar won the Criterium du Dauphiné 2025
When asked about his impression of riding with
Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, thinking about what will happen in the next Tour de France, Simon Velasco was quite precise: "They are at another level," said the Italian.
For Velasco, Pogacar and Vingegaard, when it comes down to it, they will be the only ones in the fight for the yellow jersey in the three-week Grande Boucle. For Remco Evenepoel, this may serve as motivation. Shutting mouths always tastes better than fulfilling positive forecasts.
In love with Mathieu van der Poel
Finally, before concluding his assessment of the Dauphiné stars who will go to the Tour, Simon Velasco wanted to refer to the high level of Mathieu van der Poel:
"I saw that he was really flying. He's already in great shape. He came close to the podium in the time trial. The day of the breakaway where Romeo won, we started climbing right away, 15 minutes and he was in front attacking, and I can assure you we were climbing hard, very hard. There were about 40 of us left at the top, but he was in the first 20 attacking, which means he's already in very good shape," he said of the Dutchman.
I always thought MvdP could've made a good stage racer cept he's gone down the Classics route
He’s gone down (too) many routes, if he’d focus on it, he’d still make it. Trouble is, he also has a job in GTs so that doesn’t leave many stages.