{"id":1000449,"date":"2026-06-02T12:36:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T12:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1000449\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T12:36:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T12:36:16","slug":"bradley-wiggins-on-why-vingegaards-tour-de-france-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1000449\/","title":{"rendered":"Bradley Wiggins on why Vingegaard\u2019s Tour de France chances"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bradley Wiggins<\/a> believes Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> has taken the smarter route to the Tour de France<\/a> by winning the Giro d\u2019Italia<\/a> first. The former Tour winner sees a Visma leaader who goes into July in better shape than in previous seasons. Speaking on The Move<\/a>\u2019s Giro d\u2019Italia review podcast, Wiggins and Johan Bruyneel<\/a> spoke about Vingegaard\u2019s \u2018flawless\u2019 season, and argued that the Giro-Tour double is no longer the impossible task it once was.<\/p>\n

Wiggins\u2019 key point was that Vingegaard has arrived at this moment without the injuries and disruption that ruined recent Tour build-ups. \u201cI wonder how this is going to set him up for July,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the best Jonas Vingegaard we\u2019ve seen over the last few years, since he won the Tour I would say.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former Team Sky man was especially struck by how complete Vingegaard\u2019s spring has been. \u201cHe\u2019s won Paris-Nice already, won Catalunya. So he’s had a flawless season so far up to this point. It remains to be seen how that’s going to set him up for July in the big challenge that comes against Tadej [Poga\u010dar].\u201d<\/p>\n

Is the Giro – Tour double more manageable in the modern cycling era?<\/p>\n

Wiggins also pushed back against the idea that riding the Giro leaves a rider too empty to also win the Tour de France. \u201cI think the sport has changed so much now. I think gone are the days now of the Giro – Tour double being too hard and impossible to do. I think now the way guys are racing, the way guys are recovering, it’s a different sport now.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was even more direct when asked whether Vingegaard should have skipped Italy altogether. \u201cHe\u2019s tried the other way. A couple of times,\u201d Wiggins said. \u201cI actually think that this will set him up better than we\u2019ve seen him in previous years at the Tour de France.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruyneel on Visma\u2019s ability to control the raceJohan Bruyneel<\/a>\u2019s reading was less about Vingegaard alone and more about the machine around him. His view was that Visma | Lease a Bike managed the Giro d\u2019Italia almost perfectly. \u201cTake Poga\u010dar and UAE out of the equation and Visma almost never fails,\u201d Bruyneel said. \u201cThe way they have prepared, the way they have controlled, and the way they have executed, their strategy has been flawless.\u201d<\/p>\n

He stressed that this kind of control will be crucial for Vingegaard across the three weeks of the Tour de France. In his eyes, Vingegaard\u2019s Giro was not just a display of individual superiority, but proof of how tightly the team managed every phase of the race. That is also why Bruyneel thinks the Dane can start the Tour with a cleaner head than his main rival.<\/p>\n

Vingegaard Giro win shifts pressure onto Poga\u010dar<\/p>\n

Bruyneel argued that Poga\u010dar and UAE enter July in very different positions:<\/p>\n

\u201cJonas Vingegaard and Visma can now go into the Tour de France without a lot of pressure. They have won the Giro, Jonas has won every single race he started. He wants to win the tour, but he comes in relaxed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPoga\u010dar is now in a different situation because if you’re the best and everybody expects you to win. Anything but a win is a failure for Poga\u010dar and UAE. And this is not the case for Visma. It changes a lot in the approach because you know there’s the physical fitness, the physical tiredness, but mentally also we have a lot of energy wasted on stress, nerves, pressure, and I think this is an advantage. He comes in really relaxed and if he finishes second in the tour to France behind Poga\u010dar, everyone says, \u2018Okay, great job,\u2019\u201d concluded Bruyneel.<\/p>\n

Can Jonas Vingegaard beat Tadej Poga\u010dar at the Tour de France?<\/p>\n

On this, Wiggins and Bruyneel would not be drawn out. But Wiggin\u2019s did double down on how strong Vingegaard\u2019s position is going into the Tour, largely thanks to winning the Giro:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s won five stages [at the Giro], looks to be in the form of his life in terms of numbers and the stats. Going into this Tour de France he can be confident that he can push Tadej more than he has done in previous years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradley Wiggins<\/a>\u2019 final word on the matter: \u201cI think July is going to be really exciting.\u201dAuthor: David Bavin-Hobbs<\/a> | Email: [email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bradley Wiggins believes Jonas Vingegaard has taken the smarter route to the Tour de France by winning the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1000450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5309],"tags":[45504,4230,2000,299,36,42456,184882,186087,31323,263180,16152,20680],"class_list":["post-1000449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-bradley-wiggins","tag-cycling","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-giro-ditalia","tag-idl-productions","tag-johan-bruyneel","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-latest-cycling-news","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116680549225541140","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1000449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1000450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1000449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1000449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1000449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}