{"id":245476,"date":"2025-07-07T14:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T14:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/245476\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T14:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T14:33:12","slug":"stronger-and-more-organised-than-uae-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/245476\/","title":{"rendered":"Stronger and more organised than UAE right now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>As you might expect, Jonas Vingegaard has been front and centre of all the attacking racing by Visma over the first two stages. \u201cJonas looked really good today,&#8221; Wiggins says of the Dane after stage 2. &#8220;A bit over-excited perhaps \u2014 we saw him attacking on that descent, which probably wasn\u2019t necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was also a way to stay up front and out of trouble,&#8221; Bruyneel adds. &#8220;If the race stretches into a line like that, you\u2019re less likely to get caught behind. In the sprint, we kind of expected him to lose the wheel \u2014 he can\u2019t hold Mathieu\u2019s wheel, and Tadej is so explosive too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whilst Pogacar has been the match of Vingegaard and Visma so far, not all the GC contenders can say the same. \u201cCarlos Rodriguez is INEOS&#8217; GC hope, but he\u2019s not at the level we expected,&#8221; says Wiggins. &#8220;Yes, he had that crash earlier this year and a complicated collarbone fracture that took time to heal \u2014 but still, he lost more time today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRemco Evenepoel was much better today than yesterday. His team looked after him too. I get the sense that they were caught napping on stage one,&#8221; Bruyneel adds. &#8220;But today, he was right where he needed to be. On the steepest climb, it was Van der Poel and the GC contenders \u2014 and no one else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/van-der-poel-686b763e2e516.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto\" alt=\"van der poel\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Van der Poel stormed into the Maillot Jaune with his stage 2 win<\/p>\n<p>Winning stage 2 and taking the Maillot Jaune though, there was no doubt that <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/mathieu-van-der-poel\" title=\"Mathieu van der Poel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mathieu van der Poel<\/a> was the star of the day. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cVan der Poel looked incredibly strong on that climb. I think he\u2019s in the best form we\u2019ve ever seen from him at the Tour,&#8221; analyses Wiggins. &#8220;I wouldn\u2019t be surprised at all if he wins another stage this week.\u201dBruyneel meanwhile, praises the <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/alpecin-deceuninck\" title=\"Alpecin-Deceuninck\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alpecin-Deceuninck<\/a> team as a whole. \u201cCredit to Christoph and Philip Roodhooft \u2014 especially when you consider where they\u2019ve come from,&#8221; he says. &#8220;Budget-wise, they\u2019re well down the list. They\u2019re not even in the top five richest teams. What they\u2019re achieving is phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And it could get even better too. With a bunch sprint expected on stage 3, Jasper Philipsen has the chance to make it three stage wins on the bounce for Alpecin-Deceuninck at the start of the 2025 Tour de France. \u201cThat would be something else \u2014 and it\u2019s not impossible,&#8221; concludes Wiggins and Bruyneel. &#8220;Especially at the Tour. It\u2019s always chaos, but the earlier a team gets a win, the more it snowballs. The pressure disappears, mistakes are fewer, riders relax. Let\u2019s be honest \u2014 more than half the teams here won\u2019t win a single stage, let alone two. Alpecin already have. If Jasper makes it three, that would be incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; As you might expect, Jonas Vingegaard has been front and centre of all the attacking racing by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-245476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114812446670991179","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245476","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=245476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}