Michael Storer is convinced: ‘Vingegaard will beat Pogacar at the Tour this year’

Speaking on the Domestique Hotseat podcast, the Australian, who finished seventh overall at the 2026 Giro d’Italia, said the Dane was in red hot form after spending three weeks racing on the same roads in Italy.

Vingegaard won the 2026 Giro with five stage victories and claimed the overall title by 5 minutes and 22 seconds over Felix Gall.

Storer’s seventh place was his best Grand Tour result to date. He finished more than six minutes behind Vingegaard despite describing it as the strongest three week race of his career.

“He’s in some red hot form, in my opinion,” Storer said. “I think he’s going to be even better at the Tour than he was at the Giro.

“I think he even said in an interview that he is usually better in the second Grand Tour than the first. He’s also had a pretty clean run.

“So I would bet on Vingegaard rather than Pogačar for the Tour this year. I’ll just put it out there.”

Some observers criticised Vingegaard for not racing aggressively enough at the Giro. Storer, however, spent three weeks riding against him and believes that perception failed to reflect how dominant the Dane really was.

“It’s not fair to say that he wasn’t riding aggressively,” Storer said. “He just didn’t need to make a big attack.

“He could drop us while staying seated. It’s a lot less spectacular, but the time gaps he was putting into us showed how strong he was.”

Storer added that he was producing better numbers than in previous editions of the Giro, yet was still losing significant time to Vingegaard.

“I was doing better than in previous years at the Giro and I was still getting quite big time gaps from Vingegaard,” he said.

“So I would say he can beat Pogačar this year at the Tour.”

The Australian also reflected on what it is like to race against riders operating at that level.

“I think the response is just to sit back and applaud them, because I always do the best I can,” Storer said.

“Sometimes that has brought me really top results, sometimes good results and sometimes nothing. But the main thing is trying to do the best I can so I can be proud of my result, whatever the outcome.

“These top riders are just a step ahead of everyone else. At the Giro, the real race was for second place. It is quite similar when Pogačar is dominating.”

Storer is on Tudor Pro Cycling’s long list for the Tour de France and is hoping to be selected for his second appearance at the race. The Australian rode the Tour last year for Tudor, having joined the Swiss team from Groupama FDJ in 2024.

His immediate focus is recovering from the Giro, with the team needing to balance his efforts in Italy against the demands of riding two Grand Tours in succession.

“The first thing is that I need to be fit and healthy, which, in my opinion, is on track,” Storer said.

“But that is for the team to decide in the end. It is a short turnaround from the Giro to the Tour and you need things to go right.

“Last year wasn’t perfect because of the crashes at the Giro and the illness. Hopefully, this year goes better. But it is a fine balance to be able to do both.”

Listen to the full Hotseat podcast with Michael Storer 👇