{"id":279612,"date":"2025-07-21T09:32:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T09:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/279612\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T09:32:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T09:32:11","slug":"even-tadej-pogacar-said-he-wouldnt-be-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/279612\/","title":{"rendered":"Even Tadej Pogacar said he wouldn\u2019t be happy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether or not Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> remains in the fight for the Maillot Jaune at the 2025 Tour de France<\/a> is likely a debate that splits opinion. As far as Team Visma <\/a>| Lease a Bike are concerned however, they should be backing Vingegaard\u2019s GC all the way to Paris, something they have given up on over recent days, at least in the opinion of one former Tour de France winner.”I know I keep having a go at Visma, but honestly\u2026 this is getting ridiculous. The way they\u2019re riding is utterly hopeless. I just don\u2019t get it,” begins a furious Bjarne Riis<\/a> in his column for BT.dk.<\/a> “After Sunday\u2019s stage, it\u2019s a legitimate question to ask whether Jonas should start looking for another team. They clearly don\u2019t have him as their top priority. It\u2019s so disappointing to watch. Even Tadej Pogacar<\/a> said he wouldn\u2019t be happy if he were Jonas Vingegaard.”<\/p>\n

“He laid it all out on a silver platter\u2014completely exposed Visma\u2014saying he couldn\u2019t understand how three of Jonas\u2019 teammates could attack one after another on the front while Jonas was dangling at the back of the bunch,” Riis explains. “Pogacar had to chase them down himself, and as long as he\u2019s doing that, Jonas has no chance of getting back into the race. I\u2019m sorry, but that\u2019s bloody critical.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Indeed, Pogacar\u2019s criticisms of Visma sparked widespread debate on the team’s handling of Vingegaard, something that had already been questioned earlier in the race by the Dane’s own wife. Because of this, Riis believes the time may be approaching where Vingegaard and Visma part ways, although he admits the reality of that situation is difficult.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a bit too easy to just say Vingegaard should switch teams\u2014even if it feels like the obvious reaction after that stage. Because let\u2019s be honest: it\u2019s not going to happen. We\u2019re talking about Jonas here \u2014 not just any rider. He values familiarity and stability. He\u2019s on a long contract,” Riis explains. “That would mean new people, a new environment, a new setup\u2014and I don\u2019t think he\u2019s necessarily up for that. I think he\u2019ll grit his teeth and get on with things. Or he\u2019ll slam his fist on the table and say: ‘Right, enough is enough.’ Maybe Trine saw it coming when she made those comments at the start of the Tour.”<\/p>\n

\"Pogacar<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s honestly such a shame that we\u2019re even having this conversation. We\u2019ve got a Dane who\u2019s won the Tour de France twice\u2014someone we all cheer for. We want to see him fly. Shine. Win the Tour. And yet they\u2019re treating him like this,” continues Riis with fury. “The team is hanging him out to dry, and I think it\u2019s downright disgraceful. What the hell are they thinking? You don\u2019t see this kind of thing happening on any other team.”<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve got a bit of experience in this world. I\u2019ve been through a lot, both in my career and in life. And this? This isn\u2019t right. Once or twice, fine. But this keeps happening again and again and again,” adds the 1996 Maillot Jaune. “Jonas isn\u2019t getting the support he needs. It\u2019s obvious. And it\u2019s a real problem. Right now, he\u2019s riding for the wrong team. As a Dane, I can\u2019t help but think: ‘Hmm, Jonas, you\u2019ve got to do something about this.’ How well does he have to ride before Visma believe in him?”<\/p>\n

“Show the man some respect. He\u2019s fought hard to be where he is. Show respect for the world-class rider that he is. He absolutely deserves it, and I really struggle to see why it has to be like this,” Riis concludes. “The problem is, the management have promised van Aert he can do whatever he likes. Of course that\u2019s going to create problems and conflicts from time to time\u2014even if I do believe the riders themselves get on well enough. But the leadership strategy just doesn\u2019t fit. So we ended up with this situation on Sunday\u2019s stage, where Jonas looked completely abandoned by his own team\u2014who seemed far more interested in chasing the stage win.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whether or not Jonas Vingegaard remains in the fight for the Maillot Jaune at the 2025 Tour de…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-279612","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\/114890535533263833","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279612","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=279612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}