‘I can’t do more’: Jonas Vingegaard’s striking Pogacar admission revealed by Mattias Skjelmose

That is the sobering picture painted by fellow Dane Mattias Skjelmose, who has opened up about conversations with Vingegaard during races and revealed just how difficult the growing performance gap to Pogačar has become for the Visma | Lease a Bike leader to process.

Speaking on Christian Fuhlendorff’s Hva så?! podcast, Skjelmose explained that the two riders have regularly spoken inside the peloton. Their discussions have included the rivalry that has defined the Tour de France in recent years.

According to Skjelmose, Vingegaard has been remarkably clear about where he believes he currently stands.

“He says: ‘I am producing the best performances I have ever produced. I simply cannot do more. What am I supposed to do when I am better than I have ever been and he still rides away from me? I cannot do more.’”

Vingegaard remains the only rider to have beaten Pogačar twice at the Tour de France, in 2022 and 2023. Since then, however, the balance has shifted firmly in the Slovenian’s favour. Pogačar has continued to raise his level, while Vingegaard’s preparations have repeatedly been disrupted by crashes and injuries.

His serious accident at the Tour of the Basque Country in 2024 was the most significant setback, but Skjelmose says Vingegaard does not use it as an explanation for the growing gap between them. Instead, he believes he is now performing better than when he won the Tour.

During the 2026 Tour de France, Vingegaard repeatedly maintained that his numbers and performances were better than ever, even as Pogačar continued to take time from him.

By the end of the second week, the gap between the two had grown to around four and a half minutes.

Vingegaard’s race then came to an abrupt end on stage 15, when a crash left him with a broken collarbone. He later underwent surgery, bringing an early conclusion to another Tour in which the expected battle with Pogačar had again occupied much of the attention.

Before the crash, however, Skjelmose says Vingegaard had no doubts about his preparation or condition. He felt he was riding at the highest level of his career. The frustration was that even that was not enough to stay with Pogačar.

Skjelmose believes that only added to the pressure on the Visma leader.

“I think there is enormous pressure on him,” the Lidl Trek rider said. “He is the only one who has really been able to compete with Pogačar and he is the one who has come closest. Everyone’s expectations are on him, and not just in Denmark.”

Vingegaard did later concede that his Tour preparation may not have been perfect after all. Looking back on the race, he suggested that Visma | Lease a Bike had focused too heavily on improving his ability on longer climbs, while the 2026 Tour demanded also explosiveness.

“We may have slightly misread the Tour this year,” Vingegaard admitted afterwards during a press conference at the Tour of Denmark. He felt the team could perhaps have paid more attention to the route and the need for shorter, sharper efforts, although he also acknowledged that building explosiveness after a three week Giro was never going to be straightforward.

Former Tour contender Michael Rasmussen was not convinced by that explanation. 

Speaking to Viaplay, he argued that Visma had enough time between the Giro and Tour to work on Vingegaard’s acceleration and described the reasoning as “a poor excuse”. He also questioned whether fatigue from the Giro could really have played a major role given how comfortably Vingegaard had won the race.

Rasmussen’s wider point was even more uncompromising. In his view, a different preparation would not have changed the final hierarchy. “Visma could have sent Jonas to the moon,” he said. “The result would still have been the same: defeat to Tadej Pogačar.”