Pogačar vs Vingegaard
Greg LeMond and Bernard Hinault. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali… some of the best rivalries in sport have been a clash of styles, cultures and temperaments.
Rocky IV was the best in the franchise because our flawed hero was pitted against an indomitable Russian, Ivan Drago, who’d seemingly been built in a lab.
And so it is with the latest, possibly greatest, Tour de France rivalry, between Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard.
Barely a minute separates the two best Grand Tour riders of their generation across the past four Tours de France and some 320 hours of racing.
That hair’s breadth gap is all the more remarkable given their starkly different methods.
One, Pogačar, races all-year round, in the style of Merckx or Hinault, on all terrain, with a stated career goal of winning as many different races as possible.
The other, Vingegaard, is from the Froome mould, honing form in carefully calibrated training camps and emerging only occasionally for strategic week-long stage races.
Of the five French showdowns so far, this is easily the most eagerly awaited.