Pogacar hails Vingegaard as 'best climber in the world' before Tour de France

Tadej Pogačar knows the drill by now. He may have flown under the radar ahead of his Tour de France debut in 2020, but he has been the centre of attention before the Grand Départ at every edition since. 

It was no different on Thursday evening in Lille, where the world champion charmed the multitudes by addressing them in hesitant French. “Bonsoir Lille, comment allez-vous?” he smiled, ever eager to put on a show, and the crowd responded in kind.

In the media centre an hour of so earlier, Pogačar found himself navigating familiar terrain, too. His five Tours to date have been duels against Visma | Lease a Bike – first Primoz Roglič, then Jonas Vingegaard – and 2026 promises to be more of the same.

Chasing a fourth Tour victory, Pogačar is the overwhelming favourite after his dominance last July and his latest exhibition at the Critérium du Dauphiné. But he was just as heavily favoured in 2022, when Vingegaard toppled him for the first time and the Dane proved it was no sucker punch by doing the same again twelve months later. 

Pogačar and Vingegaard have occupied the top two positions for the past four Tours, and it would be a surprise if that sequence didn’t continue this July.

“I think the last five years were quite intense with me and Jonas, and the others as well,” Pogačar said. “I think this year is more or less the same as the last couple of years, but you never know with the new guys coming in as well. I think he is in great shape, and I am also looking forward to race against all the others on different terrains. It’s going to be a great month for people in front of the TV.”

Pogačar is the best cyclist in the world, but Vingegaard pushes him to new extremes each July, just as Mathieu van der Poel does in the Classics each Spring. Indeed, Vingegaard’s wins in 2022 and 2023 led some to conclude that he was simply better suited to the Tour’s specific challenges than his rival. On that note, Pogačar was asked where – if anywhere – he felt Vingegaard had his number. 

Perhaps surprisingly, given his crushing victories on back-to-back summit finishes at the Dauphine, Pogačar suggested that Vingegaard might be the best climber in the world, though he stopped short of declaring it outright. No matter, it never hurts to talk up the opposition before the main event.

“Where Jonas might be stronger than me, we don’t know, we’ll have to see in the Tour…” Pogačar said. “I think he’s the best climber in the world at the moment, in the last few years. On the long climbs, I think he’s one of the best, if not the best, but he can also do great time trials, sometimes better than me, sometimes worse. So we will see on this Tour where he will be better than me and where I can be better than him.”

By now, it seems there is little new light to be shed on Pogačar and Vingegaard’s rivalry, though the most recent instalment of the Netflix Tour de France: Unchained documentary did offer an additional insight of sorts when it captured the Slovenian swearing at his rival in frustration on the gravel stage of the 2024 Tour.

“Of course, it’s not nice to flip off somebody, but I think in all sports in the heat of the moment you say something you might regret afterwards,” Pogačar said. “But it was just heat of the moment, a lot of guys say bad words in the peloton when it’s so stressful and sometimes it comes naturally to a rider to scream. 

“There’s been a lot of tension in the past years between UAE and Visma and when you’re competing for the biggest race then of course there’s going to be tension, but we all have big respect for each other.”

The expectation is that Pogačar and Vingegaard will renew their duel in the high mountains, with Mont Ventoux and the Col de la Loze looming on the horizon, but there are pitfalls aplenty before then.

“My goal should be to gain time, but the first week you just need to take care, not screw up the whole Tour and just focus,” Pogačar said of the early exchanges. “You have to save the legs for the last week, and see how it goes hopefully without any bad luck or sort of incidents to survive the first week.”