Long-distance duel between the Tour favourites: Pogačar and Vingegaard in sync

His first race day in 2025 had been Jonas Vingegaard certainly imagined differently. He ended up in chaos on the 1st stage of the Tour of the Algarve: because the route was not cordoned off very carefully at the last roundabout before the finishing straight in Lagos, a large part of the peloton shot past the finishing channel on a parallel road. The jury cancelled the stage. The comparatively small tour disgraced itself on the first visit of the two-time Tour winner.

Chaotic start, successful conclusion

Nevertheless, racing normalised in the following days - the 28-year-old Dane still had the opportunity to prove his current strength on the way to a third possible overall victory at the Tour de France: After five days of racing, the professional cyclist from Team Visma | Lease a Bike had secured overall victory - thanks to a strong individual time trial with the finish on the steep Alto do Malhão on the final day. It was a signal from the currently strongest challenger to Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) on his way to the showdown in France in July. The Slovenian, who is two years younger, had celebrated overall victory in the UAE Tour in the United Arab Emirates just a few hours earlier. At first glance, it was the equaliser in the long-running rivalry for the Tour victory. After all, the battle for overall victory in the Tour de France begins with the first race between the two unequal rivals - it's all about winning small points in the media and thus in the psychological confrontation. At the award ceremony on the panoramic mountain on the south coast of Portugal, Vingegaard looked deep into the eyes of the narrowly defeated João Almeida from the Pogačars racing team - so he wanted to send his regards to his captain.

Five years - two Tour winners

For the last five years, the two best current tour specialists have alternated in dominating the world's most important cycling race: Pogačar triumphed in 2020, 2021 and last year, Vingegaard pushed to the top in 2022 and 2023 - since 2021, the battle for yellow has always been a duel between the two, with the rest of the peloton as largely chanceless observers. And this year too, hardly anyone can imagine that anyone other than one of the aforementioned could triumph in Paris. Especially as the only other contender, the 25-year-old Belgian Remco Evenepoel from Team Soudal Quick-Step, seems to be hopelessly behind due to a serious training accident at the start of the season and is not due to start racing until mid-April at the earliest. And so, early on in the year, the two best tour specialists of the moment are scrutinised at every one of their appearances - by rivals, fans and the media.

>> This is the route of the Tour de France 2025

Vingegaard removes his own doubts

This makes early successes all the more important. Vingegaard was reassured after his performance on the Portuguese south coast. "After the last few days I doubted a bit more, but today I showed my true self, my true level," he said at the top of the Alto do Malhão, where the Algarve lies at your feet. Vingegaard knew that he was well on the way to knocking his long-term Slovenian rival off his throne at the Tour de France. Vingegaard had previously shown slight weaknesses on stage 2, when he was initially able to keep up with the pace in the attacks on the queen stage to Alto da Foia, but then lost touch and was somewhat disappointed with sixth place overall. While Pogačar's team-mate Jan Christen and Joao Almeida celebrated a double victory - of all things. It was a bit of a dampener.

"Pogi" plays with the competition

The chase to victory in Portugal was also an important signal to his eternal rival Tadej Pogačar (Team UAE Team Emirates - XRG). Due to the time difference, Pogačar had pulled ahead and won the UAE Tour in his employer's home country a few thousand kilometres away. However, the Slovenian, hungry for victory, had continued right at the start of the season as he had finished the previous one: dominant, without missing a chance to win, without a hint of weakness on the stages - unlike his rival. On the first stage he was still caught in the final sprint, but he secured the stage wins on the mountain top finishes on Jebel Jais and Jebel Hafeet with almost playful ease, sometimes allowing himself to be teasingly dropped by half the peloton in order to gain an overview at his leisure. On the final day, he showed all his rivals the limits early on Jebel Hafeet and rode away alone. "It was better to ride my own pace," he said at the finish. Which was, of course, too fast for everyone.

A fun trip in the desert

The 2024 Tour winner also only lost a few seconds to the specialists Joshua Tarling and Stefan Bissegger in the flat individual time trial. In between, he pulled off a clown move of sorts when he and team-mate Domen Novak rode up and away from the peloton on a flat stage and secured three bonus seconds for the overall standings in a leading group. They were later dropped by the peloton - a typical Pogačar. As if he wanted to combat the boredom of the long race days in the Arabian desert. The message to the competition: even after his super year in 2024, the 26-year-old is not yet fed up. On the contrary.

Vingegaard crowns hard work

It looked like a lot more hard work for Vingegaard. With a show of strength on the last 2.6 kilometres and almost 10 percent steep final climb, he surged from sixth place in the overall standings to the very front. And showed that he is a force to be reckoned with again in the new year. He won his opening race for the third time in a row. Most recently he won the Spanish stage race O Gran Camiño twice, this time he opted for the annual debut in the south of Portugal, where classics specialists and classification riders traditionally meet to build up their form. The success was also prestigious because the Dane snatched overall victory from the Portuguese rider João from Pogačar's UAE racing team in a thrilling finale. What kind of signal would that have been if he had had to concede to his rival's noble helper? "I'm super happy with the win and my performance," emphasised the Algarve overall winner in his summary.

The challenger needs a run-up

Previously, the rascal from Denmark had struggled to get going. On the second stage, he initially showed himself to be in good form, but then had to let go on the way to the Alto da Foia summit finish and let Pogačar's team-mates Jan Christen and Almeida go on their way to the stage win. It wasn't until the almost 20-kilometre-long battle against the clock that he regained his confidence, relegating team-mate Wout van Aert to second place by eleven seconds on the final 2.6 kilometres with an average gradient of almost 10 per cent, pushing all the way up from sixth place overall and clearly putting another Tour podium contender such as Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) in his place.

Reunion at the Dauphiné?

Duels, whether wheel-to-wheel or only over long distances, will not take place between the two until the summer. "I'm not going to do any stage races until June, I'm going to concentrate on the one-day classics," said "Pogi". This year, he will skip the Giro, which the Slovenian won with aplomb last year. The first showdown between the two long-time rivals will probably take place at the Tour of the Dauphiné in June, where both are planning to start. While the fast all-rounder Pogačar is planning to start at Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the more enduring tour specialist has not yet revealed any ambitions for one-day races in 2025. He rode himself into shape in the Algarve for even stronger performances in the next stage races: Paris-Nice and the Tour of Catalonia are the next goals.

Both in top form at the Tour de France this time?

The tension is rising as to how the duel will develop, should both be in top form and without injury breaks at the start of the 1st Tour stage in Lille on 5 July 2025. Most recently, one of them came to the Grand Départ weakened by crashes. Pogačar weakened in July 2023 because the crash at Liège-Bastogne-Liège with a broken hand cost him valuable preparation time. Last year, Vingegaard described it as a miracle to be able to start the Grande Boucle at all after he was involved in a major mass crash at the Tour of the Basque Country in April and, in his own words, feared for his life at the time. Nevertheless, he was less than three months later than the rest of the cycling world. This time, it would be a miracle if anyone other than one of the two could actually challenge for the triumph in Paris.